Golf (7–1–2) continued its strong campaign on a new home course, hosting Holderness and St. Mark’s for its first games on its new course.
Zihan Zhao ’28 described the acclimation process to Golf’s new home course. With consistent practice, the team was able to prepare wisely for its opening match.
“Today, we prepared by having our usual practices during the week, but we also went over strategies with Coach [Brian] Faulk. He’s a member at the course we played, so he told us what clubs to take, where to aim off the tee, and gave us yardage books. It was really helpful because for me and one of our other players, Zorah Williams ’26, a postgrad recruit, this was only our second time playing the course since it just opened as our home course. It was very useful in preparing for the match.” said Zhao.
Rocco Fawcett ’28 praised teammates Zhao and Ian M. Kim ’28 for stellar performances, as well as Sebastian Montemayor ’27, who all helped the team bounce back from some rough results in the midst of Wednesday’s match.
“Our Captain, Evan DeMayo [’26], had a rough round, as did our number one seed Sebastian [’27] who ended up winning one of those matches, which was huge. Everyone supported them, and we got the result,” said Fawcett.
For Zhao, this game was even more special, as it was his first Varsity match of the season.
“We were playing against St. Mark’s, who have been pretty strong recently. Some players were more relaxed, but for me, since it was my first varsity match of the season, I felt nervous. It was kind of quiet, not much talking, just warming up and practicing. It felt serious, but we all loosened up after the first couple of holes,” said Zhao.
Zhao praised Montemayor as well, citing his win as the momentum shifter that helped the team run away with the win and display the level of play for teammates to emulate.
“We had impressive performances from our one seed, Sebastian Montemayor. He really dominated St. Mark’s and Holderness in the number one spot. That helped give us an early lead and didn’t give either team much time to recover after their first matches,” said Zhao.
With a tight stretch of close games coming up, Fawcett described how recent wins allow the team to mentally prepare itself for challenges to come. With eyes set on the Andover Invitational on Saturday, April 25, Golf is looking to use these wins to build some strong momentum.
“We had a couple of ties earlier in the season, so this win helped us get a better hold of things. We don’t have a match this weekend, and we have a tournament next week, so it’s good to build momentum and set the tone for the rest of the season. It’s a strong win, especially against a good team like St. Mark’s,” said Fawcett.
Golf will face Proctor Academy (Proctor) on Wednesday and Brooks on Thursday.
