Clarkrange Golf Gearing Up For Districts

In his first full season as Clarkrange golf coach, Josh Swallows said that this season is about constant improvement and a shift in his golfers mindset.

Swallows said he tells his golfers to try and shave at least a stroke of their scorecard every round, preferably three or four. He said his golfers are competitive and want to beat their competition, but it has been his goal to change their outlook on the season.

“I think that they understand it now, that all these matches that we are playing are just practice rounds,” Swallows said. “You’re playing with other schools, but you’re not playing against them. As far as the scores go, you’re just trying to shoot the lowest score you can shoot as a group. And I think that they are actually learning that now. So, we’re just trying to grow as a team.”

With one of the younger and inexperienced rosters in the region, Clarkrange has not found the tournament or match success his golfers desire. Swallows said with the district tournament in less than a month, he wants his golfers to fine tune their games and find their swings.

“It’s coming up on us fast, district’s will be here before you know it,” Swallows said. “We’re just trying to play and I encourage the kids to go out and play as much as they can, it’s just kind of hard to get them all together and do that.”

Clarkrange’s golf team features multiple two sport athletes and with football in season and winter sports gearing up, Swallows does not always have a full roster at practices or matches.

For the freshman golfers on the Clarkrange squad, their scores are being used at an early stage in their career. Swallows highlights freshman Luke Thompson and Noah Gunner as ninth graders that are relied upon.

“He is above average as a freshman,” Swallows said. “And the more he plays, the better he is going to get. And that’s just like all of them. The more they play, the better they are going to get. Noah Gunner, there’s another one, he’s a freshman and I can tell he’s gotten better since the season started. I didn’t know if they would really like it, but after they started playing they fell in love with it.”

The leaders on this team both for scores and steady attitudes are returning players Bryton Swallows, Brady Sitton and Matthew Norris. Swallows said those three have high school experience and their scores have steadily improved this year.