Despite a slow 1-4 start to the season, the varsity boys golf team plans to rely on years of experience to reach its ambitious end-of-season goals this year.

This year’s roster consists of seniors Parker Crews, Jacob Hagen, George Hughes, Jake Littlejohn and Andrew Smith, junior Chase Baker, sophomore Alec Martig and freshman Arturo Zavala. Of the eight, six played on the team last year, and four of the seniors have played at the varsity level since they were freshmen.

With these stats, the Tigers have the most combined years of past varsity golf experience of any team in the Capital Valley Conference and are a main reason as to why the boys feel so confident about the season.

“Realistically, we think that we have a chance of winning league this year because we’ve been a younger-oriented team up until now,” Crews said.

Although experience will be a key factor, the Tigers also have a secret weapon in Zavala. The freshman plays the number two spot on the team, second to Littlejohn, and his current scores are better than those of any freshman boy that coach Corey Fukuman has seen in a long time. His ability to post low scores will certainly aid the team in this year’s effort.

Littlejohn continues to impress, leading the Tigers in almost every statistic this season, and his consistency will continue to be one of the team’s strengths.

However, even with talented players, the Tigers still need to focus on keeping their individual scores low on a regular basis in order to total lower scores in matches.

They have had some low rounds so far, but have also struggled a few times as well.
“Consistency,” Crews said. “I feel like one week we can put up [a score in the] low 200s, but then [two weeks ago] we shot a 235. We want to break 205.”

The Tigers opened up their season with a 201-213 loss against Vista Del Lago, who have proven to be the boys’ toughest competition yet. After that came two more losses from Placer and Rocklin, but the Tigers managed to turn things around against Del Campo in the following match last Tuesday to open up the league season, shooting a season-low score of 208 in their 43-stroke victory.

Last Thursday, the boys took a 208-215 loss against Cosumnes Oaks, one of their closest competitors this year. The boys predict the Wolfpack to be among the top teams in the CVC at the end of the season alongside themselves, Whitney and Ponderosa.

The Tigers play today in the Thunder Invitational tournament hosted by Rocklin High School at Whitney Oaks Golf Club.