After being gridlocked at sixth place in the Northern California Championships last season, the girls golf team looks to reboot with a powerful upgrade of consistent performance, crushing all of its opponents in the first eight matches of the season.
Cruising through this victory, the team has high hopes of breaking into the California Interscholastic Foundation (CIF) State Championships.
The team crushed Lynbrook High School by a score of 155-181 on Sept. 21 at Deep Cliff Golf Course in Cupertino. Senior captain Stephanie Yu shot a 27 and sophomore Priya Bakshi shot a 29 during the 9-hole match.
“I don’t think it was difference in our skill [compared to other teams] that led us to score well, but maybe a stronger mental [game] and calmer frame of mind,” Yu said.
The team has won its matches this year by an average of around 28 strokes, defeating Saratoga High School by 201-228 on Sept. 18 and Gunn by 30 strokes, 193-233 on Sept. 14.
“I think the team has a big chance of making it to states,” Yu said. “Our team has great depth in our lineup, with our top six all capable of shooting good scores.”
Despite the many impressive victories, junior Jasmine Choi still sees room for improvement.
“There were few teammates who said they could have done better [so a few of them were not satisfied with their scores,” jChoi said. “I guess one thing our team should improve on is to put up consistent scores since some other matches they had up and downs.”
One of the difficulty the team faces is finding available times for practice.“Our practices are usually right after school and it is 4 to 5:50 [p.m.] every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and sometimes Wednesday,” Choi said. “But usually this year, we have matches on Tuesdays and Thursdays so we tend to practice in our own.”
Besides having trouble finding appropriate time for practice, the team is still experiencing difficulties with finding a practice course since their home course, Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course, is still under construction.
Choi said, “We usually just hit range balls due to construction at Palo Alto Muni, but we are trying to find a place where we can chip and putt too.”
