91����

For a sport with such a clear objective, golf is shockingly uncertain. Yes, the goal is to get the ball in the cup, but so many factors—including ones that can change from day to day, hole to hole, or even swing to swing—are at play every time an athlete picks up a club. Like tennis, another team sports where members all compete individually, golf is notorious for the mental anguish it causes those who love it.

The boys on the 91���� varsity golf team are familiar with all this, and doing their best, both on the links and off, to master the game. Or at the very least, says senior captain Teppei Morita and postgraduate Cal Hoyt, to control what they can and learn from their mistakes.

Morita, in his fourth year on the team, said he and junior Lucien Yin are always recording their swings and reviewing the footage to analyze their technique and fix problems. Most recently, Morita was struggling with slicing the ball and used the film Yin had taken to figure out his club face was open.

Did it solve the problem? Morita laughed, the expression of someone who realizes just how hard golf is. “It’s gotten better,” he said.

Hoyt jumped in with support. “People don’t really take into account how hard golf is.”

Though he’s been on the team for only two years, Hoyt has been playing golf since age four; he spends summers working the front desk and grounds crew at Great Chebeague Golf Club on Chebeaugue Island, Maine. All that time has given him a deep respect for the intricacies of the sport, and how quickly a physical endeavor can turn mental.

“Golf is probably the hardest mental sport there is,” Hoyt explained. “If you hit a bad shot you can get in your head.”

Despite a huge improvement from last year—the team currently has eight wins—Hoyt said the boys are struggling with consistency. But what’s best about the team is they support one another, said Head Coach Mike Fay, who makes it a point to meet after every practice and match to debrief.

Fay, in his two decades at the helm, is a champion of his players, and encourages them to deal with the wild swings the game can bring about in its athletes.

“They all love to practice and are dedicated to improving, but they also have a healthy perspective on the game and an understanding that sometimes you play great and sometimes you don’t,” said Fay. “The players support each other by celebrating great rounds and keeping bad rounds in perspective,” he added.

Hoyt and Morita both agree golf, not just the wins but the missed shots and head games, have helped them off the course, allowing them, as Hoyt said, to “brush off anything not going your way and [remain] optimistic.”

Mental aspects of the game aside, golf requires very specific physicality, strength, dexterity, and endurance, skills the team works to sharpen during daily practices at Wyckoff Country Club in Holyoke, and nine, 18, and even 36-hole events like this weekend’s (May 9-10) Independent Invitational Tournament at Crumpin-Fox Club in Bernardston, Mass., which will feature teams from all over New England and as far south as Florida.

It was at Wyckoff that junior Maddox Pemrick shot a hole-in-one earlier this season on his way to a two-under-par score of 32.

To simulate match conditions and satisfy a team made up of what Hoyt said are “all super competitive” players, Hoyt and Morita noted almost every practice features two-on-two matchups.

“It gets the competitive juices flowing,” said Hoyt, who noted that his pair, he and Pemrick, have frequently been on the losing end against junior Easton Anello and senior Cam Tabb.

“They’ve had our number,” said Hoyt, smiling. “They’ve beat us a good amount.”

The joking is indicative of the camaraderie and perseverance at the heart of the Boys Varsity Golf team.

“We all get along,” stressed Hoyt. That, plus the competitive spirit of each player and the support they offer one another “guides us through practice and matches.”

But a team made up of friends doesn’t necessarily equate to wins, and the boys on the team know that.

“This year we’ve been trying to win as many matches as we can,” said Hoyt, who noted many golfers they face are headed for Division-1 schools in college. That’s part of the allure.

“We’re put together from athletes from all different sports,” he said. “That’s the fun of it. It might not be our main sport … but let’s see who we can beat.”