The key to establishing the status of a player’s game on the golf course is going through a full round and evaluating where things went right and where things went wrong.
The Manitou Springs boys golfers got that chance on Aug. 22, when they played at the Sand Creek Invite at Valley Hi Golf Course.
Junior Jack Clifford put together the Mustangs’ best round, shooting a 14-over-par 86 to tie for 36th.
He had rough moments, for sure, playing his first five holes at eight over par, but was able to settle in and end his day on an encouraging note. He made birdie on the par-five 17th and then consecutive pars on six and seven to close out his day (he started on No. 8).
“I’d say that’s a really good start,” Clifford said. “I did not think that I was going to break 90 today. My drives were really good. They went far and straight. My chipping was OK.”
The common theme for the Mustangs is that they need to tighten things up when it comes to their short game. If they can clean up chipping and putting, the scores will start decreasing across the board. It’s not a problem specific to one particular player, it’s something the team as a whole needs to work on.
“We need to put a lot of emphasis on chipping and putting and not just going down to the range and hitting balls,” coach Ken Vecchio said.
“We don’t have a lot of time this week, but after (playing in two more tournaments) we have a whole week before we play again so we can try and work on some of those shortcomings.”
Senior Kai Thomas shot 101, sophomore Landon Foster shot a 113 and sophomore Jameson Cunningham rounded out the Manitou effort with a 126.
The Mustangs finished 24th out of 27 teams, most of which were Class 5A and 4A programs. Manitou played in its first league tournament at Hollydot on Wednesday, Aug. 24, but results were not available at press time.
They head to Cherokee Ridge for the Marauder Invitational on Thursday, Aug. 25.