Up next, the Division III sectional tournament on Tuesday at Walden Ponds Golf Course.
“This year we are about one or two strokes better on our average in the month of September compared to last year,” MCS coach Dr. Gary Cobb said. “I like the way we are playing right now. We’re playing better than we did earlier in the season.”
Cobb pointed to a dual match against Fenwick on Sept. 9 at Brown’s Run Country Club as the turning point in the season
“We shot a 160 in that match, and have averaged three strokes better per match since then,” he said.
The week before the Fenwick match, MCS shot a school record score of 156 against Bellbrook.
The top five golfers for the Eagles are all juniors, including No. 1 player Brooks Curry, a two-time state qualifier. He placed sixth overall at state as a freshman, and was fifth last season.
Curry shot a 73 on Thursday to win the MBC’s fourth event. By winning, he also was named the league’s player of the year.
“We’ve been trying to put all the pieces together and I think it’s starting to come around,” Curry said of his team’s recent performance. “It’s that time of year though, so we have to play solid the next three weeks if we want to get back to state.”
Curry went with his team in 2008, but was only an individual qualifier last season.
That left a bitter taste in the mouths of the other Eagle players.
“It gave us a lot of motivation coming back this year,” junior Erik Gregory said of being a spectator at the state meet last year. Gregory was part of the state team in 2008 as well, which made not qualifying last year even harder.
“It made me want to work harder,” he said. “I took a lot of lessons over the summer to get my game up. I’ve struggled a little bit, but the last few weeks I think I’ve been playing really well.
“I’ve been keeping my head in the game,” Gregory continued. “I’m trying not to get frustrated when I have a bad shot, and I don’t let how someone else is playing get into my head. I’m just playing the course.”
Junior Luke Dotson was a member of the junior varsity team in 2008, so he has not experienced golf at the state level.
But his confidence level this year has been as improved as anyone else’s on the team.
“This whole year has been about mental focus for me too,” Dotson said. “I’m playing to win now instead of playing not to lose.
“Brooks is always consistent,” he continued. “It takes the rest of us to do well. If we can all shoot in the 70s like we did (Thursday), we’ll be fine.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2852 or sweaver@coxohio.com.
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