On Friday, April 17, the boys golf team heads over to The Links at Dardene to face the Timberland Wolves.  The match will be held around 3:15 p.m.  Howell North’s top five players will play against Timberland’s top five players.

“Keeping focus on my own game is probably the toughest thing for me,” junior Ryan Dickey said.

After the match, the Knights will then take four of the best scores out of the five and add them up and compare them to the other teams four best scores. The team with the lower number of strokes will then win the match. Both JV and varsity boys golf teams hope to pull in a win, although they hear Timberland is pretty decent competition for them.

“Timberland has been on top for the last couple of years,” sophomore Fletcher Detrich said.  “I haven’t seen much of them this year, but I have heard they are pretty decent, nothing unbeatable though.”

During the matches, the boys tend to focus on a variety of different things.  From concentrating to technique it can be hard to master it all.  Engaging in their own individual games and not worrying about the others in their groups will help the team overall stay on top and stay attentive to the goals in which they are wanting to achieve.

“So, when I’m going through a round I assess the conditions, distance, wind, lie, etc,” senior AJ Porter said.  “I then pick my shot (shot shape, club), I stay aggressive, and trust it.”

Boys golf has big intentions to improve for this match. They hope to see improvements they’ve been working on in practices play out on the course this Friday.

“I have been struggling with hitting the ball accurately with my irons,” Detrich said. “If I can do that then I think I’d be looking at a good round.”

Coach Wright encourages the boys and pushes them to their fullest to make the season worth it.

“Wright is always giving us advice,” Porter said.  “He shows us where to focus on during fairways, greens, and counting our putts, making every single shot worth it.”

“Coach constantly tells us to work more on our weaknesses then our strengths to improve,” senior Kyle Melchoir said.

If boys golf succeeds to win, they can put themselves in a good position to do well at the conference tournament towards the end of the month.  This is Howell North’s only chance to take down a juggernaut school to move up in the GAC standings.

“Coming into this match we are 2-1, getting this win would get us to 3-1 and probably put us on top of our conference,” Detrich said.  “If everyone could score in the high 30’s or low 40’s then I think we could pull out this win to a tough Timberland team.”

The boys fervor for golf will hopefully play into roll and help them to accomplish their goals for this match.

“My overall goal for this Friday is to play well and to implement all of the mental techniques I’m working on,” Porter said.