Friday, October 6, 2017
The Times Argus Fall Sports Guide
21
Montpelier Golf
Tyler Cain
Logan Carbo
Jake Ehret
Josh Ehret
Brady Hill
Henry Jones
Jack Kurrle
Zach Lague
Jenna Mekkelsen
Machlan Pettersen
Bryson Richards
Evan Rohan
Neil Rohan
Coach Brian Cain
to play themselves.
“My kids appreciate my personal golf sacrifice,” he
said.
For the past 16 years Harwood coach Brian McCar-
thy began each spring season by showing a golf video
to his team. The Highlanders were typically playing
the waiting game while snow melted from the fairways,
and sometimes the majority of April was spent indoors.
Following Wednesday’s match at the Country Club of
Vermont, McCarthy confessed that this year’s team
hasn’t even watched the video.
They’ve been too busy playing.
“We haven’t been in the gym and I haven’t had the
chance to show the video that we usually take two days
to watch in the classroom,” he said. “I really haven’t
had the chance to do it because I want them on the
course. I want to show them the practical ‘How to hit
a ball. How to putt.’ For the new kids and the other
kids, they just don’t need to be inside. The two weeks
of hitting plastic balls, I will never, ever miss.”
McCarthy’s top golfer, Aidan Melville, fine-tuned
his game over the summer and was on fire this week.
He recorded a 33 at Northfield Country Club after
chipping in on the final hole. And he shot a 38 on the
Highlanders’ home course
“I’ve been coaching 13 years and Aidan had the
lowest score that I can remember for a tournament at
Northfield,” McNair. “Even with all those great golfers
I had seven years ago, this was the lowest.”
Harwood’s Ian Groom fired a 40 at Northfield and
a 39 at CCV, while Nate Honeywell followed up a 41
at Northfield with a 42. The Highlanders’ showed off
their depth with a 42 by Brian Giluly at Northfield and
a non-scoring 44 by Ivan Morse.
“We could have used that throw-away score,” McNair
said. “That was better than anyone on my team.”
Tyler Orton, Nathan Poulin, Kail Johnson and Jacob
Preston have led Northfield-Williamstown, which
will attempt to keep pace with Stowe in Division III.
McNair has been working primarily with the Maraud-
ers, while co-coach Adam Wheatley has been giving
instructions to the Blue Devils.
“Golf being what it is, they’re practicing at Montague
and my guys are practicing at Northfield,” McNair
said. “So we only see them at matches to this point.
We’ve been able to focus on a few kids and really work
on their games. And moving to fall, the first practice
we could go out and actually practice on the course.
And the course is pretty empty, so we’re able to hit
10 90-yard shots, 10 80-yard shots, 10 70-yard hosts.
That’s stuff we could never do when it was busier on
the course. A lot of people put their clubs away after
Labor Day. And in spring people have cabin fever and
they’re ready to play. The switching of seasons has
opened things up to people who didn’t play in the
spring opposite baseball. We’re playing on a dry course
with warm weather. And that was not the case in the
spring.”
McCarthy, chasing his first title since 2012, was in
full agreement.
“We started on Aug. 17 and it already feels like we’ve
played more golf than we did all of last spring because
there hasn’t been a break,” he said. “Even though it’s
been a little rainy, we’ve been able to get our matches
in. We’re guaranteed 10 weeks of golf now. States is
in the middle of October, so we’re still going to have
plenty of light and plenty of nice weather to play.
That’s 10 weeks, and we barely get five in a good
spring. So I’m liking that. For us, numbers aren’t an
issue – we have plenty of kids. I know some of the
schools are having issues with combining sports. But
I think within a year or two, kids are going to figure
it out whether they’re going to play golf or if they’re
going to play soccer. I think it will be fine, and I’m
loving it personally.”
This article was originally published at the start of the
fall season.