Colby golf is on par for excellent year
The Colby Hornets golf program is set to hit the links this spring, and they bring with them some encouraging numbers and a bit of experience at the helm.
Coach Brandon Butkus and Ben Bartelt are in charge of a 14 player golf team. Five players return that will seed top five and go to the varsity matches. The rest are all newcomers and the high schoolers are looking at making starts on junior varsity.
Each team is allowed to bring five players each, five on varsity and five on junior varsity. This year however, you can bring as many players as you want to the junior varsity level.
Some schools will be bringing two teams of players to junior varsity events: an A team and a B team.
The returning players are eager to play this year, returning after a one year break in the program due to COVID-19. The year before that you could play but you had to wear a mask to the first hole and had to keep your social distance from other players.
Senior Carson Rau, a two-time year player, was playing before joining the team. When asked about what he was most excited about, he replied, “The competition.” He also said that “making good contact with the ball” is something he likes when working on his swing.
Head coach Butkus said, “The Hornets got new mats, new practice golf balls, practice mirrors, swing aligners and a swing trainer.
“The conference split into two separate conferences for shorter field of play and giving other teams a chance to win. For Colby they always take sixth to seventh places for conference championship. This will give them a chance to place in higher places.” Coach Butkus said. “The teams come together every other meet for a conference crossover meet. Each crossover meet consists of golfing 18 holes.”
Usually, the Hornets would take off of school to go play a 18 hole tournament but for one of the meets they will be leaving school early for a day to go golf. The conference meets that are worth points are the 9 hole meets. Those take place during the week and the players get out of school early.
The team hosts the first conference meet of the year in Medford at Black River Golf Course. They’ve also added many new meets to their schedule such as Bloomer, Lake Wissota and Rivers Edge. They took some meets off their schedule as well, including Eau Claire Country Club, Pine Valley and Northern Bay.
The Colby Hornets are forced to practice inside right now. Until the courses dry up and open, they will have to resort to having miscellaneous practice drills, focusing closely on the club face at contact, working on hitting foam balls, chipping and putting.
Coach Butkus said, “I’ve got all the players working on fundamentals while we are stuck inside such as the grip, what the top of the swing should look like, and the takeaway. These are all key components of a good golf swing.”
