On March 24, the Westfield girls golf team, led by senior co-captains Lily Patel and Peyton Harrington, opened their season at home against Chatham at Echo Lake Country Club, defeating the Cougars 193-228.
Because it was their opening match, head coach Kevin Everly said going in, the strategy was simple. “We just basically took our six best girls that had performed the best in the preseason and in the past. There were five seniors, so they’ve had a lot of experience. And I know, especially with the first match and nerves, that they would be able to handle it pretty well,” Everly said.
During the match, the Blue Devils faced the challenge of the cold weather, especially at Echo Lake. “Since Echo is such an open course, the wind definitely plays a role. That was a struggle today, just trying to figure out distances and which clubs to play, and a lot of keeping balls low,” said Patel.
Despite the cold, the girls were able to put up a strong performance against their opponents. “Once I got warmed up, my driver was pretty good. So I was very happy about that,” said senior Chloe Martin.
Patel, Martin, sophomore Amaya Isom and senior Ella Dolling all put up scores that allowed Westfield to secure the win. Patel’s 42, along with Isom’s 49 and Martin and Dolling’s scores of 51 allowed the Blue Devils to secure the top four best scores in the match.
Patel said a strength of her performance was her irons. “I feel like my shorter irons were pretty good, and then I had a good second shot in on the ninth that settled me down and helped me close out the round with the par.”
After the match, Everly said one of the main focuses is the mental game, making sure to keep a strong mindset so that a performance like this continues. “At the end of the match, I’ll just talk about what was going on and how we did mentally because sometimes golf is a frustrating sport,” Everly said.
Looking ahead, the Blue Devils are back in action hoping to secure another win as they face New Providence at Plainfield Country Club on March 25.
