This season, the St. Mark’s golf team competed in some of Dallas’ biggest invitationals and faced several ups and downs. The team dealt with early morning bus rides and late nights of homework while competing in Texas’ biggest invitationals.
The golf athletes have to account for accuracy, team judgement and academic anxiety. Players traveled to invitationals such as: Brookhaven, Hawks Creek, Meadowbrook and the season culminating Southern Preparatory Conference championship.
“SPC is the culmination of everything,” senior Golf captain, Jonathan Lobel, said.
Although the team found success throughout the season, the first day of SPC was especially difficult, with subpar weather being a major factor.
“The first day, it was raining,” Lobel said. “Towards the end of the day everything was standing water. You have to move your ball every time it landed, just because it would be buried.”
The waterlogged course created challenges that most golfers struggled to overcome.
“We did not play well. Duff, another captain, played well. He shot even par but other than that. The whole team played pretty poorly,” Lobel said.
The team finished third in the SPC Championship, 18 shots behind Kincaid, the winner.
Behind SPC, the All Saints tournament in Austin was the next most important tournament of the season.
“First day we were behind Kincaid… We were behind six,” Lobel said.
After falling behind the first day, Duff McKay, an Indiana golf commit, helped close the gap with an amazing second day.
“We came back and played very well,” Lobel said. “We won by 12. Duff set the tournament low… He was 8-under for two days and then Sam was third place.”
One of the biggest challenges for the golf team is not just the athletic demands. In order to be a functional St. Mark’s student, the players need to be able to make up missed class time after long days on the course. Missed class time and early morning bus rides make many empty of energy to finish their tasks.
“You have to miss a day or two for tournaments and when you get back on a tournament day, you really don’t want to do school work,” Lobel said. “You play a five-hour round of golf and you get home at five, six, or seven o’clock… It’s tough to do that and then focus on schoolwork but you have to do it because you’re already an extra day behind.”
For younger players, tournaments are also opportunities for growth. Vasilis Tsevoukas said his best performance came at the Meadowbrook Golf Course in Fort Worth.
“I shot 82 that day,” Tsevoukas said.
He said his first high school tournament, Brookhaven, as one of his favorites despite his performance.
“Even though I did bad… it was really fun because it was all the schools in the area,” Tsevoukas said.
Players spend a majority of their time alone at the driving range. The amount of time a player puts in when no one is watching is often what improves their game the quickest.
“For SPC, I played six days straight just trying to get ready,” Lobel said.
That dedication has helped the team maintain its place among the other Dallas programs.
“In the Dallas area, we have the best golf team that I know of,” Lobel said.
With experienced upperclassmen leading and younger players consistently improving, the golf team used this season’s tournaments to compete and build toward future success.
