General golfers open season with pair of strong showings
The way Wooster golf coach Mark Snowbarger looks at it, the Generals can only get better. When one considers that Wooster opened the season with fourth- and fifth-place finishes in a pair of 18-team tournaments, there is strong evidence Wooster could carve out a strong season.Wooster opened with a fourth at Sugarcreeks Pirate Invitational at Willandale August 11 and followed that up with a fifth at Brunswicks Pine Hills with a 337. That was a good sign for Snowbarger as that is the district course where Wooster hopes to be playing in early October.We shot OK (at Willandale) in bad conditions, said Snowbarger of his teams 350, 29 shots out of first but only six shots out of second. It was a little rainy and quite windy. We were still in practice mode but we shot much better (at Brunswick).The Generals have four letter winners returning from last season, but we only have one senior on the team, said Snowbarger. The good thing is we have more kids who golfed over the summer. We have more kids – nine – who are (Wooster) country club members and five others who played a lot more golf. We have some young golfers who might be pretty good by the middle of the season.The Generals return four of their top six golfers from a year ago, with two sophomores and two freshmen looking to play their way into the regular five-man rotation. No one is distancing themself (in that group), said Snowbarger, who noted, In the last tryout there was one stroke between all four.We will be looking to get better as the season goes on and try to find that (fifth) spot.Nick Buckingham is the lone senior on the team and one of its veterans as he is going for his third letter. He was in the 41-42 range last year, said Snowbarger. He had some good rounds and some in the middle last year. He had a couple scores in the 70s over 18 holes.Four juniors played their way onto varsity. Among them were Trevor Gant, Colby Jeffries and Tom Huettner, who all lettered last year, along with classmate Ben Oberg.Ben is coming up from JV. He played a few varsity matches early last year when Tom was on vacation and he probably worked as hard as anyone in the offseason, said Snowbarger. He was one of our hardest workers we had this summer and Trevor Gant probably played the most golf. He got a job at Hawks, got a range pass and played a lot.I think the guys came in a lot more interested in golf. They have good attitudes and seem to want to work. We had Rich Danch, The College of Wooster coach, do a range demonstration for us and he talked about practicing with a purpose. He reiterated some of the things we said and coming from The College of Wooster coach that hit home and helped us out.We have four freshmen and four sophomores, so eight of our 18 players are freshmen and sophomores, which makes it nice to know we have something coming up. And, they are all interested in golf.The Generals will be on the road for their first six matches, opening August 30 against West Holmes.
