MORGANTOWN — The 2023 high school golf season is well underway and most student-athletes haven’t even had their first day of school yet.
Morgantown and University gathered at The Pines Country Club on Wednesday, joined by Buckhannon-Upshur and Keyser, for an 18-hole match afternoon under cloudy skies. Each team sent out six players with the top four scores for each team being tallied up for the final scores for each team.
MHS took first overall with the low score of 311. The Mohigans were led by sophomore Solas Chinn-Kreiner, who shot a 1-over 72 on the day. UHS was led by Adam Argabrite who carded an 80 with a score of 40 on each nine.
Keyser scored just eight strokes behind the Hawks with a 341, while B-U tallied a 373.
“These guys are gamers,” MHS coach Joel Barrett said after the match. “They’ve been working hard so far all season, they’re always on the course together, hanging out together as a team and it’s showing on the scorecards.”
The highest score on the day for MHS was an 87, while the rest of the team were all under 85. Chinn-Kreiner shot a 35 on the front nine with a 37 on the back for his low round of 72. Braxton Martucci was second on the team with a 79, followed by Gabriel Watson and Andrew Sheets who each shot 80.
“Today was a really solid round for me, I wasn’t driving it the best but my irons and wedges were working and my putting was decent,” Shinn-Kreiner said. “I made some long two putts which always helps. I probably left some shots out there but I’m happy with my round today.”
Scorers for University included Argabrite followed by Daniel Grabo’s round of 82. Landon Spiker carded an 83 while Owen Estel was the Hawk’s final scorer with an 88.
The Pines is the home course for MHS, which means players typically know the type of shot they want to hit and where they want it to go before they even come to the tee box of a hole. This also helps players find shots that play to their strengths in search of a low round.
“Out here it’s all about putting myself in a good position in the fairways,” Chinn-Kreiner said. “It’s not a long course and you don’t necessarily need driver off of every tee so just playing to that and knowing what shot to hit.”
Barrett says early on in the season team chemistry is important and establishing that isn’t always going to happen naturally. Luckily for Barrett, his players have become a strong unit on and off the course.
“When you have a team that gels the way we have, it makes the team game better,” he said. “This isn’t all individual at the end of the day, these guys are playing as a group and are only as strong as our worst score. Once we have that team aspect down, we can get on to the rest of the season.”
Both MHS and UHS will travel to Marion County on Saturday for the Marion Invitational at Green Hill Golf Course.
