AUBURN - The Auburn boys golf team may be walking the fairways this season with a collective chip on their shoulder - well, their top two guys at least.
Junior Ryan May and senior Brian Walker coasted through the regular season, averaging 36.1 and 39.9, respectively. Both had high expectations entering postseason play and both ended their seasons quicker than they would have liked.
Walker struggled in the Section III qualifier and missed the cut by two strokes while May advanced to sectionals but a quadruple bogey on his second-to-last hole at Seven Oaks Country Club sent him home early. He missed the first-day cut by one stroke.
“Walking off the course it kind of hurt,” Auburn coach Tony LoCastro said of May. “Hopefully he learned from his mistakes and should just go on from there. I think he'll be okay this year.”
As for Walker, the Maroons' co-captain entered the offseason as determined as ever.
“He's been working very hard over the summer,” LoCastro said. “We're both members at Lakeview Country Club so I get almost a daily report on what he's been doing. He tells me what he shoots and he's been pretty consistent all five practice days. He's been under 40 so I think he should do well this year. He'll probably keep up with Ryan May hopefully.”
Despite their tumultuous finishes to the 2005 season, LoCastro is in no way worried about the play of his two leaders. May and Walker will continue to deliver brilliant rounds, but the final four guys in the rotation will probably determine the success of the Maroons.
Returnees Sean Hogan, C.J. Shaw and Ryan Gleason should round out the top-five positions with either Jon Poweski or Frank Mutari grabbing the sixth slot. Poweski could have a breakout year, as he recently took first place at the Bobby Hoey Junior Golf Tournament.
“You know what you're going to get with (May and Walker),” LoCastro said. “The other three have shown flashes of brilliance but they've also got to learn to be a little more consistent. Every year it's about consistency. They go two or three matches shooting 40 or under then all of a sudden a 45 will pop up and you're like 'what happened?' They might go two matches like that - 45 or 43 - and then they'll kind of settle back to what they normally shoot.”
Scoring-wise, LoCastro has set the goal this year at 40-and-under. If Auburn's top-six can keep their scores around 40, meaning stay away from double and triple bogeys, they will be tough to beat and could even top last season's record of 11-3.
“If they want to go to the league qualifier, they have to play in half their matches and shoot 40 each time, then they can qualify,” LoCastro said. “But they've got to be more consistent before they even think about doing that. They've got to get their game in order.”
Consistency may be the main goal but keeping the ball playable is the first step to steadiness on the course.
“The young kids always like to hit it and rip it,” LoCastro said. “A couple kids can really jack it out there but we'd also like them to be in the fairway instead of playing from places that I've never seen before ... You can score from the fairway but if you're in parts like the rough or behind trees, you're not going to come up with good numbers.”
The Maroons possess the talent to challenge for a league title and for some, a trip to the state championship at Cornell University would completely extinguish those not-so-fond memories of 2005.
Walker struggled in the Section III qualifier and missed the cut by two strokes while May advanced to sectionals but a quadruple bogey on his second-to-last hole at Seven Oaks Country Club sent him home early. He missed the first-day cut by one stroke.
“Walking off the course it kind of hurt,” Auburn coach Tony LoCastro said of May. “Hopefully he learned from his mistakes and should just go on from there. I think he'll be okay this year.”
As for Walker, the Maroons' co-captain entered the offseason as determined as ever.
“He's been working very hard over the summer,” LoCastro said. “We're both members at Lakeview Country Club so I get almost a daily report on what he's been doing. He tells me what he shoots and he's been pretty consistent all five practice days. He's been under 40 so I think he should do well this year. He'll probably keep up with Ryan May hopefully.”
Despite their tumultuous finishes to the 2005 season, LoCastro is in no way worried about the play of his two leaders. May and Walker will continue to deliver brilliant rounds, but the final four guys in the rotation will probably determine the success of the Maroons.
Returnees Sean Hogan, C.J. Shaw and Ryan Gleason should round out the top-five positions with either Jon Poweski or Frank Mutari grabbing the sixth slot. Poweski could have a breakout year, as he recently took first place at the Bobby Hoey Junior Golf Tournament.
“You know what you're going to get with (May and Walker),” LoCastro said. “The other three have shown flashes of brilliance but they've also got to learn to be a little more consistent. Every year it's about consistency. They go two or three matches shooting 40 or under then all of a sudden a 45 will pop up and you're like 'what happened?' They might go two matches like that - 45 or 43 - and then they'll kind of settle back to what they normally shoot.”
Scoring-wise, LoCastro has set the goal this year at 40-and-under. If Auburn's top-six can keep their scores around 40, meaning stay away from double and triple bogeys, they will be tough to beat and could even top last season's record of 11-3.
“If they want to go to the league qualifier, they have to play in half their matches and shoot 40 each time, then they can qualify,” LoCastro said. “But they've got to be more consistent before they even think about doing that. They've got to get their game in order.”
Consistency may be the main goal but keeping the ball playable is the first step to steadiness on the course.
“The young kids always like to hit it and rip it,” LoCastro said. “A couple kids can really jack it out there but we'd also like them to be in the fairway instead of playing from places that I've never seen before ... You can score from the fairway but if you're in parts like the rough or behind trees, you're not going to come up with good numbers.”
The Maroons possess the talent to challenge for a league title and for some, a trip to the state championship at Cornell University would completely extinguish those not-so-fond memories of 2005.