Wolverines golf defeats Lopez Lobos

Submitted by the Friday Harbor golf team

The Friday Harbor High School golf team faced Lopez on April 27 at the San Juan Golf Club. The final score was 248 for the Wolverines and 258 for Lopez.

Tobin Arden from Lopez scored a 40 on the San Juan course to lead all players as medalists. Dylan Posenjak, of Friday Harbor, and Reese Hamilton, Lopez, tied for second place with a pair of 44’s. Freshman Ethan Havel had another personal best with a score of 48 and finished in fourth place. With the Lopez men finishing 1, 2 they won the bragging rights for the day with an 8 shot victory over the local squad.

The last time the team played Lopez, four of their top ladies all broke 50 and beat almost everyone on the Wolverines team. For this team match, six players were selected to go up against the Lopez squad. Friday Harbor pulled out a slim victory 248 to 258. A star golfer from Lopez, Nora Zapalac, got caught in one of San Juan’s famous 6-foot deep sand traps and found out how hard it is to escape. If it hadn’t been for that misfortune, the win would have been determined by the last putt.

When you’re a beginner golfer, the big challenge is to break 50 for the first time on a nine-hole score. With a couple years experience, the next challenge is to break 40.

The following is the coach’s evaluation of a few of the top players on the team.

Dylan Posenjak: shot 44 with two triples on 6 and 7. The coach watched him play the seventh hole and he drove the ball 40 yards from the green in one shot. He then shanked his second shot OB for a two-shot penalty. If Dylan had pared those two holes he would have shot a 38.

Sean Chevalier: shot 53 with a 7 on 3 and a 9 on 9; that’s a triple and a quad. If he had bogeyed those two holes, he would be looking at a 47.

Ian Volk: shot a 53 with a 10 on 7 and a 9 on 8. He played seven great holes and let it slip away with two train wrecks. If he had bogeyed the last two holes, he would have finished with a 43.

Ethan Havel: shot 48, a personal best. He made 7 on 1 and 7 on 9 both par fives. Golfers look at par fives as birdie holes. If Ethan had pared those two he would have shot 44.

Alen Malic: shot 62 with a 14 on 2 and 9 on 5. If he had pared those two holes he would have carded a 48.

Levi Doenges: shot 50 with 7 on 1 and 7 on 9. Again, both par fives; they should have been birdie holes. If he just pars them he shoots 46.

Weston Swirtz: shot 50 with a 10 on 9. He threw away five shots on one hole. He had a nice 45 looking right at him.

Chase Wilson: shot 51 with an 8 on 3 and 7 on 7. Let’s give Chase bogeys on those two holes and he shoots 46.

Peter Kulseth: shot 50 with a 6 on 6 and an 8 on 7. If he bogeys those two holes he shoots 45.

The pattern continues with the entire team.

So what does this tell us? Life and golf have a lot in common. When we make little mistakes, which we all do, it’s pretty easy to recover from them. When you make big mistakes it has a tendency to ruin your day and wreck your golf score. The challenge is to figure out how to stop making big mistakes before the team heads into the district tournaments.

Friday Harbor Golf Team:

The six players with a * were the varsity for this match.

Dylan Posenjak 44 *

Ethan Havel 48 * 92

Peter Kulseth 50 *

Levi Doenges 50

Weston Swirtz 50

Chase Wilson 51

Aiden Shannon 52

Sean Chevalier 53 *

Ian Volk 53 * 248

Joe Kaden 59

Alen Melic 62 *

Isaac Brumsickle 66

Julian Brown 69

Bradley Bennett 70

Adam Bates 70

Tyler Fleming 71

Logan Border 72

Dante Prewitt 73

Lopez Golf Team Men

Tobin Arden 40

Reese Hamilton 44 84

Lopez Golf Team Women

Anah-Kate Drahn 52

Naomi Vliet 54

Nora Zapalac 68 258

Wolverines golf defeats Lopez Lobos