News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Cookeville Cavaliers golf team is off to a hot start in their 2024 campaign, led behind junior golfer Owen Hill.
The team lost a number of key senior contributors, so coming into this season, head coach Larry Pitts said he knew this team would feature younger, less experienced golfers. Pitts said replacing last year’s seniors was a concern that was quickly thwarted after a few practices.
“As far as seniors go, they’ve stepped up in leadership positions for the team,” Pitts said. “And everybody kind of, you know, bands behind them. But, they’ve been pretty solid.”
Seniors’ Ethan Poston, Sarah Tinsley and Posten Bost are the golfers that Pitts will rely on for both solid scores and helping the underclassman along. Pitts said that Bost struggled last year to post good rounds, but this year the senior has found a new gear.
“When he first came to high school, he’d only been playing maybe a year,” Pitts said. “So, as good as his golf swing was, his experience level wasn’t that much. And so, he’s gained experience and gotten better and gotten better. He keeps working hard at it, he works all the time.”
The Cavs season started at the annual Early Bird tournament at Golden Eagle Golf Club. The annual tournament, hosted by Cookeville High, is the first chance for golfers to see their competition and compete for a tournament win.
“Everybody had a good attitude that morning. We had our normal team meeting and everybody knew what they had to do,” Pitts said. “And of course you got a little bit of nerves going because it is the first big tournament of the year and you want to get off to a good start. Plus, when it is your home tournament you want to do even better. But they did that, they stepped up and played well.”
Cookeville High’s boys team won the tournament by two strokes, beating out Tullahoma 302 to 304 to secure the first tournament of the year. Junior Owen Hill came in second as an individual after recording a 71.
At their next match, the Cavaliers beat Livingston Academy and Warren County. Sophomore Kirsten Ealy had her best round tying for the lowest score of the girls.
Pitts said at this point in the season, it is his job to provide his golfers with positive feedback and that the team is working on playing carefree, fearless golf.
“If you can get to the point where you don’t fear the result of a bad shot, then you feel like you can recover from it and still score,” Pitts said. “And you’re going to make some bogeys, that’s just the way it is and that’s how golf is. Nobody’s going to be perfect, so you just have to accept the fact that you’re going to hit bad shots. It’s just going to be about how you recover from them.”
