With tournaments in Powell and Cody, the Worland High School golfers had an up-and-down start to their seasons.
“It was a mixed bag of results for us,” said WHS golf coach Ben Hofmann. “We had some kids play really well for us. Then we had a few who struggled more than they were hoping to.”
Sam Keller led the Lady Warriors in Powell, Aug. 10-11 and Cody, Aug. 14-15, shooting an 89, 90-179 to finish fifth in Powell, and a 92, 102-194 in Cody, finishing sixth.
For the Warriors, Tyshon Swalstad was the team’s top golfer in Powell and Cody. He shot an 83-86 in Powell, placing 16th, and went 83, 83-166 to finish ninth in Cody.
“Tyshon went 83, 83 and was consistent, and I think he would have liked to play a little better to climb up a few more spots. Jermaine [Broussard] had a really good day and a bad day in Cody. We had a few of those on the team. Sam Keller in Powell shot 89, 90, but she wanted to shoot for the low 80s. There’s some work to do, and improvements need to be made,” said Hofmann.
Emery Carver for the Lady Warriors and Bolen Barthelmess put together strong rounds in both Cody and Powell.
“Emery played well a couple of those days,” said Hofmann. “Bolen Barthelmess keeps getting better and better. He’s a freshman and will be one who improves week to week. We didn’t have Lucas Hamer the first couple of tournaments, he was at a foreign exchange program, so he got his first tournaments this week.”
The short game has been the focus for Worland to start the season and remains so. Developing that consistency in the short game is the best way for the Worland golfers to hit those scores they want.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on our short game. We’ve done a decent job of getting off the tee box and have struggled chipping and putting around the green. We’ve spent a lot of time working on that short game,” said Hofmann. “We want to get to the point where it’s one chip and two putts. We’ve had a lot of three putts or two chips. The more consistent we can be, the better shape we’ll be in.”