By JOSH BURRIS
With a group of nearly all new golfers, Southern Wells coach Ross Palmer was not entirely sure what to expect from his Raiders’ golf team in 2021.
A cancelled 2020 season ended the careers for a senior-heavy team the year before and resulted in having two classes of kids that had never golfed before.
Southern Wells shot a 427 at the ACAC championship to place sixth, and shot a 415 at its sectional meet to place ninth.
It may not have been glamorous on the scoreboard, but Palmer said he saw improvement from his team from start to finish.
“I didn’t know what the expectations were going to be just because I had a lot of new guys that I had never seen golf before,” Palmer said. “From the beginning of the year to the end, we improved a lot. It’s kind of nice this year I have all those same guys returning, so I expect that same kind of improvement by the end of this year. Hopefully we will have a pretty successful year.”
James Foss was the team’s top golfer last year, shooting a 88 at ACAC and an 89 at sectional in his first season playing with the team. Now a senior, Foss will continue to lead the team.
Palmer expects sophomore Gabe McElhaney to settle in at the No. 2 slot of his lineup.
The final three spots will be fought for between the final four on the team. Seniors Archer Jones and Clay Smith and sophomores Tristen Worster and Bailey Couch all return from playing last year and could fall in any one of those three slots.
Now with more experience, the Raiders are shooting for much better scores in 2022.
“We set some goals for ourselves, and if we reach those goals we will be competing right there with the other teams in our conference. I’d like to say that if we play well and do what’s expected, we will have a really successful year,” Palmer said.
Palmer said all the guys came up with a score they hope to be shooting at for their 18-hole matches this year. The scores all add up to around 350 he said, which would put them in the running to win the ACAC championship.
Palmer said they are aiming for a score rather than a place to hold themselves accountable and give themselves a number to work towards.
“If we can do that, we will be right there and have a shot at it,” Palmer said about ACAC.
Palmer said their conference is always fun to compete against. He expects Heritage, Jay County, and Bluffton to be in the mix to win just as those teams have the past few seasons.
However, there are always new players that usually pop up and impress as well, so he said you really never know who could win it.
“It’s always interesting to see who the newcomers are. There are always one or two kids in the conference that you’ve never seen before, and all of a sudden they show up and they are great. So you never know for sure,” Palmer said. “It’s a fun, competitive conference to be in.”
Besides ACAC, the Raiders will have a crack at a few other 18-hole matches before its sectional match. The South Adams Invitational will be played at the end of April, and Bi-County will be played later in the month of May.
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