The fall championship season is upon us and four local high school golf teams will be playing for division titles this week.
The Bow Falcons, winners of six of the last seven Division III championships, are especially eager for the chance to defend their crown when the D-III championship tees off on Tuesday at Mount Washington Resort Golf Club.
Last year’s D-III championship was rained out, so the Falcons were awarded the title based on having the best regular season record.
Bow has been on a roll again this year, amassing a 28-2 record and the No. 2 seed through regular season play, but will face stiff competition from No. 1 Derryfield (30-0) – the team responsible for the only two blemishes on the Falcons’ near-perfect mark.
Knocking off the undefeated Cougars, the 2017 D-III champions that feature two of the state’s best golfers in Colin McCaigue and Gunnar Senatore, is a tall order, but not an impossible one.
“Keeping the ball in play and minimizing big scores,” according to Bow head coach Matt Davis, will be the keys to having a chance to knock off the heavy favorites from Derryfield, as well as carding some early low scores.
“There’s some scoring possibilities on the front nine,” Davis said. “The back nine has challenges that need to be managed.
The Falcons have their own stud in senior leader Jake Mielcarz and a deep lineup that includes sophomores Matt Lamy and Brady True, senior CJ Smethurst, junior Justin Murphy and freshman Cam Evans.
Also competing for Bow is sophomore Amelia Soucy, who has already taken some championship swings this year in the girls’ state championship where she tied for 15th in the Championship Flight.
The format of the competition switches from the Stableford scoring system used in the regular season to 18 holes of stroke play, which should benefit the Falcons.
“I personally think that (stroke play) is something we excel at,” Davis said following the Falcons’ big victory over No. 3 Pelham (28-2) on Sept. 30. “We preach keeping the ball in play. We’re getting better at not taking risky shots. That will benefit us since we’re typically not taking triple (bogeys) during the season because we’re so conscious of keeping the ball in play.”
Bishop Brady also qualified for the D-III championship match by tying with Lebanon and Laconia for the 10th and final spot with 14-16 records.
The Giants will have plenty of incentive to play their best since the individual state championships conclude on Sunday at Beaver Meadow in Concord, where the Giants play their home matches and head coach Phil Davis is the head golf professional.
The top 14 individuals, plus ties, from each division qualify for Sunday’s individual championship.
Matt Wiley, Matt Cherian, Kate Shoemaker (21st girls’ Championship Flight), Ben Boyer, Chris Grimbilas, Alex Pfeifer and Peyton Vachon will be Bishop Brady’s lineup.
Jacob LaBelle and Alex Chapman will be representing Kearsarge (7-23), Paige Irving (third girls’ Medal Flight) and Will Robarge will be representing Belmont (6-24) and Hunter Patterson and Jacob Greene will be representing John Stark (6-24).
After finishing as the runner-up in Division I last year, the Concord golf team is looking to have another strong championship showing when the Tide tees off on Tuesday at Stonebridge Country Club.
The Tide just snuck inside the top 10 with a 13-9 record and ninth-place finish in the regular season, but exceeded last season by earning a runner-up trophy, the best finish by the Concord golf program since it finished second in 2007.
The Tide graduated eight seniors from last year’s team, but had a stroke of luck when the team’s top returner and No. 1 player, senior Matt Hauschild, was cleared to play after a recent injury. Hauschild is one of three Concord golfers who made the cut for last year’s individual championship (the other two being Sean McDonough and Evan Makris who graduated).
“He’s been the best and (most) consistent player on our team,” head coach Mark McDonough said of Hauschild, whose scoring average this year is 39 and change.
“We have a young team and graduated eight seniors from last year. This is definitely a rebuilding year,” McDonough said. “We’re fortunate to make it into the tournament. (The Concord golfers) all have the potential for the a really low score, the question is if five of them can do it on the same day.”
Matt Burns, Logan Otto, Colin O’Brien, Will Shoemaker, Cam Brown, Tyler Coskren and Parker Savoy round out the Tide’s lineup, who will chase favorites Pinkerton (22-1), Exeter (21-1) and five-time defending champions Bedford (18-1).
Hopkinton claimed its first golf title in school history last year and is in the mix for another D-IV title on Thursday at Kingswood Golf Club.
Littleton (18-2), the Hawks (18-2), Mascenic (17-3) and Trinity (17-3) are the top four teams in a tightly-contested division, but Hopkinton is coming in hot.
The Hawks beat Mascenic twice and Trinity once in the last two weeks of the regular season and haven’t lost a match in a month.
Hopkinton lost to Mascenic by two strokes on Sept. 11 (and have since avenged those losses) and lost to Littleton by a single stroke on Sept. 16.
Kody Dexter, Dan Miner, Colby Marshall, Andrew Fairneny, Evan Fairneny and Hal Stokes will compete for Hopkinton.
Hillsboro-Deeing (4-16) finished ninth, just two places shy of qualifying.
Pembroke (6-19) and Coe-Brown (3-22) did not make the seven-team cut for the D-II championship being held on Thursday at Sky Meadow, but will send two golfers attempting to qualifying for individual state championship.
Finn Riccio and Nate Wood will represent Pembroke, while Aidan Perra and Cole Perra will compete for Coe-Brown.