Week of April 22: Woodstock Academy goes into weekend with 3-1 record
One could just imagine Woodstock Academy boys golf coach Rich Garceau just shaking his head at the thought.
“It has probably been the longest into the spring that we really haven’t spent significant time on the golf course,” Garceau said. “I’ve seen kids at the driving range, but not really on the course. On the range, someone can hit it a mile but they might not be able to score around the green until you get them oput on the course.”
In other words, it’s still a work in progress.
Garceau said his team throughout the varsity and JV ranks has some talent.
“I just don’t feel like I’ve had time to truly evaluate like I would have liked to. Do I have my strongest team out on the golf course right now? I don’t know that. That’s really frustrating for me. We had 31 players on the team and it’s been tough to evaluate them all in this really short window that we’re given this year,” Garceau said.
Finding the time to do so now will be the question.
The Centaurs had three matches this past week and have four scheduled for the coming week.
So far, the results have not been too bad.
Woodstock Academy finished off the week with a 3-1 record after a 6-1 victory over Montville at the Norwich Golf Course Thursday.
“It’s definitely misleading,” Garceau said with a laugh about thee final score against the Wolves. “If that’s all you look at, you don’t realize how close the matches were.”
None of the first four matches were decided by more than three strokes.
That was a great message, especially for the younger ones, is that every swing of the club counts for something. You can’t discount anyone,” Garceau said.
Logan Rawson and Donny Sousa shared medalist honors as both posted a three-over par 39 total. Rawson was just one stroke better than his opponent, Ben Godburn, of Montville. Sousa had a three-stroke cushion over Eli Klusek.
Aidan O’Connor lost his match by three strokes but Brady Hebert posted a two-stroke win over Nolan Muncaster and Max Kopp capped things off with a six-stroke win to guarantee the Centaurs the win.
The match the team wanted back came against Norwich Free Academy in the first Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I match of the year.
The Centaurs lost to the Wildcats, 5-2, at the Quinnatisset Country Club.
“We didn’t play our best,” Garceau said. “We gave them a good run for their money after a slow start but came on toward the end. I do think NFA and East Lyme are the cream of the crop in the ECC (Division I) this year. It gave us a little bit of confidence because we didn’t play well but we could have, and arguably should have, won that match if we would have played an average round of golf. We didn’t.”
Rawson was again the top performer for the Centaurs and won his match by a stroke over Nick Wigfield of the Wildcats as Rawson delivered a three-over 43.
Sousa, however, was on the opposite side of the equation as he lost by a stroke to Tyler Hollis 43-44.
Hebert was the only other player for Woodstock Academy in the 40’s with a 46.
“It was a learning experience for the boys. I had two freshmen in the lineup. Donny and Logan, the two old warhorses, have been carrying us through,” Garceau said.
The Centaurs started the week off in fine fashion as they came off spring break and posted a 7-0 win over Tourtellotte at Quinnatisset.
The top three players for the Centaurs, Rawson, Sousa and O’Connor all carded four-over par 40’s to pace the team.
Alec Nunes added a 46 and Nick Sivertsen came home with a 48.
“I’m feeling pretty good. Montville has a pretty strong team and we beat them, they’re 1-2 players are very good. We held on for the win there and it makes me feel pretty good going into the weekend, taking a few days off and coming back strong for a pretty busy week,” Garceau said.
