The Owatonna Boys Golf team has just passed the halfway mark of their season. Owatonna placed 11th at the Big 9 Mid-Season Conference Tournament, shooting a 377 as a team. Matthew Larson led the game with a 91 and Quinn Thompson followed with a 92.

The team has improved over the season, with an overall improvement of 20 shots, meaning they collectively finished the course with 20 less shots than previous times. With the extreme weather in the beginning of the season, high wind speeds led to the cancellations of meets. The team has grown immensely, Coach Langlois said, “It’s been a really fun team to work with. They are really coachable, work hard and desire to just get better in all areas of their games. So it’s really been a fun group to be able to coach but I know they’re, they’re working hard.” The boys have improved in shot and in practicing.  

In the teams last meet they played a Ryder Cup format, which is different from normal play. Thompson and Rielly Dibble got the team off to a great start for the first nine holes. Larson won his last four holes. He birdied his last hole, meaning he got a hole-in-one. Winning the first  nine, after a weather delay, they put up a strong fight during the last nine and won by three points. 

Golf is a sport that takes time and patience to learn. It’s a sport that you can play for a long time after your high school career. The game is a very mental game.  Coach Langlois said, “There are many mental pieces that are part of the game that I think people don’t really realize how mentally strong you have to be to be a very good golfer.” The mental piece goes hand-in-hand with the patience to learn the sport. Their next meet is at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, May 23, at Austin Country Club where they will play for the Big Nine Conference title.