It was another match, another dominant victory for the Miners boys golf squad last Wednesday at River Oaks Golf Course in Sandy City. Park City cleared second place Stansbury by 23 strokes, their widest margin of their young season.
The Miners have now crushed their competition in all three of their regional matches this season: winning their first match at Oquirrh Hills Golf Course Aug. 13 by 16 strokes and their second Aug. 21 at Murray by 21.
Next up for Park City is their home match Sept. 12 at Park City Golf Club, their home course. Players will begin teeing off at 8:30 a.m., with each team’s lowest players going first. In Utah high school golf regional matches, eight players play and six of their scores are counted towards their team score — meaning almost everyone needs to bring their A game.
“It was solid,” Head Coach George Murphy said of the River Oaks win. “It was really good to see Lucas (Sweeney excel).”
Sweeney had his best round of the season, 70, which was good enough for a tie for third. He is the fourth-ranked golfer in Region 10, behind Miners star Rawson Hardy, Forrest Summers, also of Park City, and Tommy Yates of Stansbury.
Hardy, just a junior, shot a 68 last Wednesday, for the second match in a row.
Murphy said the team fought off a shorter yet difficult course — River Oaks has narrow fairways and narrow, fast greens — and windy conditions to get the job done.
He said wants the team to keep the ball rolling and not get ahead of themselves.
“We don’t look past any any tournament,” Murphy added. “Home tournament in Park City, we want to play well there.”
The team pushes each other as hard as any of their competitors at these matches, Murphy said. Only six players will play at the state tournament in mid-October.
Murphy said he likes the team’s odds at state, given the individual improvements he’s seen, and feels this group has more depth than last year’s that took home third.
Other Miners playing great golf are Sam Hunt, Linus Einum and Chase Coulson. Those players are ranked 7th, 9th and 11th in the region, with average scores all under 79.
“We’ve got to be more prepared for state, but I think we’re doing that in practices,” said Murphy. “A couple kids stayed at the range yesterday (after practice) just to work on things, other kids played nine holes.”
Murphy said this will be the first year he’ll take practice results into state lineup consideration. He’s thinking about 70% weight on match results and 30% practice, hoping the internal competition stays healthy and beneficial.
After the home match next week, Park City will have four more regional matches. State is scheduled for Oct. 16 and 17 at Meadow Brook Golf Club in Taylorsville.
“We’re at a good point in the season,” said Murphy. “They’re still challenging themselves to improve and play better, and keep working on the little things that are going to make a difference down the stretch.”