It’s easy to overlook the Tam girls golf team given the sport’s quiet nature and the team’s relatively few members. However, attention should be paid to the fact that last year the team quite nearly made it to the MCAL playoffs, the furthest the girl’s team has ever made it in Tam’s history. One year later, the team is back on the green, putting away in pursuit of the MCAL pennant.
The team’s first match was on August 29, though unfortunately, the girls did not do as well as they had hoped, losing to Redwood 309 to 357. “The course is very long and quite difficult,” said Kate O’Brien, senior and team captain. “Each of us struggled at parts and the resulting score is one we can definitely improve upon.”
Coach John Haight said of the match, “We knocked the rust off…and tried to get back into the swing of things.”
The team played again on September 6, but were unable to post an official score as only four golfers were available to compete.
Without any players graduating from the team last year, the core group of six is back with a couple of new players joining the team as well. Senior KatieWeidman pointed to this as an advantage for the team. “All of our starters are experienced, so we can only improve,” she said.
O’Brien agreed. “We hope to get more freshmen to join and next year’s freshmen to join to keep the program strong,” she said.
O’Brien and Brooke Wenig, both experienced seniors, led the pack. “Brooke can drive really far and scores in the low 40s,” said Weidman. “Kate always goes straight and is very consistent. [She is] definitely a key player.”
“This year Brooke & I are the top spots,” said O’Brien. “Trisha [Chang, junior] has low scores to keep the team in contention with winning matches, and Holly Oakander [junior] is starting out strong.” O’Brien pointed to Chang as another golfer to watch. “She was a consistently good golfer all season and is hoping to bring in some of the lowest scores this year.”
The girls expect a season of intense competition. “We’re looking good,” said Weidman. “We are definitely capable of doing well we just need to practice and work on consistency.”
“Our goal is to improve each team member’s game and keep our scores in the same low range,” said O’Brien. “And hopefully winning some tough matches with teams that have relatively equal capabilities as us.”