Woodward-Granger golf looks for bigger moments after extra effort

Woodward-Granger’s golf season is just a few days away, as the Hawks will tee off for the first time in 2023 at Jester Park on Monday. Head coach Troy Birt comes in with some high hopes of what his teams are capable of this year on the green with some seniors ready to make one last mark to lead a young team this season.

Straight out of the gate, Birt said he’s looking to get more consistency out of his rosters and sees good signs with extra effort from the team.

“Kids have really worked hard early this season on our short game.  We feel that fine tuning our short game will benefit our scores throughout the season,” he said. “Many kids play on their own, utilize the driving range, and even play a few holes before school. That is really exciting to see when I am driving to school and I see kids on the practice green or playing holes before school starts.”

Boys

Last year, the Hawks made an incredible jump as a team, dropping their combined average score from 197 strokes in 2021 to an adjusted score of 177 in 2022. And from that team, just one member (Don David) is gone. The rest have had another year to master their swings.

“The boys bring back a lot of experience this year which will be a huge plus this year.  With being more experienced we should be more competitive. Very excited about what the boys can do this year,” Birt said.

Looking to lead the team this year after holding the team’s best 18-round average score by more than 20 strokes -- scoring 91 -- is senior Nick Bermel whom Birt said will be the team’s leader this year.

“He is always playing or working on his game before school,” Birt said. “He has expectations he has set for himself this year as a senior and we are looking forward to what he can do as an individual but also leading this team to compete at a high level.”

Sophomore Max Behrens also looks to have a high ceiling after routinely placing among the team’s top scores as a freshman.

Girls

The Hawk girls made some steady improvements last season, dropping three strokes from their combined average as a team. While that may not be as large of a leap on the scorecard as the boys saw, Woodward’s girls were winners more often than not in 2022 with seven first-place team placements out of 13 events. They had just one first-place win the previous season.

Of that group, only Darby Nixon and Rian Jamison are gone. And while the former was one of the team’s most consistent and highest-ranked contributors, Birt has faith in the rest of the team stepping up with leading roles from McKenna Carroll, Lindsay Mescher, Molly Cue and Karissa Walker.

“It will be fun to see which girl's will step up and compete for the next couple spots,” Birt added.

But like most every team, Birt said he hopes to see some improvement in everyone's short game to help reduce the variability in scores this year. In 2022, the team had a nine-hole low score of 183 strokes but dipped all the way down to 237 (which was part of a three-even streak of scoring over 210).

“We really focus on our short game. Chipping and putting around the green,” Birt said. “It's where I feel we can gain strokes on the scorecard if you can get up and down. Our main focus early is our short game.”

Both the boys and girls team will tee off at 4 p.m. Monday at Jester Park to take on Des Moines Christian and Ogden for some early conference action.

This article originally appeared on Perry Chief: Woodward-Granger golf looks for bigger moments after extra effort