After 3 days of golf, we have made our team cuts. As the freshmen coach for the last two years, I can officially predict a talent slump on the varsity level beginning next year. (We’re fine for this year and I expect us to be back at the state finals.) This years sophomores and this years freshmen are all just so-so. We will be working our hides off all year to see if we can 2 freshmen under 50 for a match. Heck, I’d even be happy with a couple of 40s scores for a practice.
This years crop of frosh are very, very weak. Of the 8 players that came out only 1-2 were worth keeping. However, after a lot of discussion amongst the coaches we decided to bring on 5 of them “as projects.” The five that were chosen have little real talent and are mediocre potential starters at best in 3 years. However, since there is such an unknown for the future we felt like it would be better to have a larger pool versus a very small pool in the coming years. (Freshmen that get cut rarely come back their sophomore year.)
A couple of funny things worth remembering. Yesterday we had the first group of freshmen on the 17th hole. A leftie somehow hit his 2nd shot dead left. He ended up nearly out of bounds on the 16th rough. He and I went over to look for his ball and when we got there he quickly surmised that he had zero shot of finishing this hole in under the 10 stroke limit. He looks at me and says, “so what should I do?” I said, “well, the fairway is back on the other side of these trees, the only thing you can do is go over them.” His eyes got like saucers. I had my lob wedge and said… “do you want me to show you what I mean?” Then I dropped a ball I had in the cart and pounded it about 120 yards over the big tree line and back into the fairway. Then I said “your turn.” Well, he chunked it about 25 yards into the woods and had to pick up. I have never, ever seen anyone go that far left on that hole and I hope it is not a premonition of the future.
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