Golf team qualifies for county tournament

The Shelter Island High School golf team traveled to North Fork Country Club in Cutchogue to play Mattituck on September 26. Going into the match, we knew that Mattituck had a nice home-course advantage. Jay Card had a 39 and lost to Richie Corazinni, who shot a two-over-par 37. Spencer Gibbs had one of his lowest rounds of the year and shot 43, third low round of the day, and got us our only point. The final tally was Mattituck 8–Shelter Island 1.

The team had its rematch with Eastport-South Manor at Gardiner’s Bay on September 27. I knew that if we were able to pull off a win, we had a chance at winning the league. Jay had a nice round of 36, one over par, and won his match. Hunter Starzee and Myles Clark both won their matches. That split the match scores 3 to 3.

It all came down to the match total scores. Both teams threw out their high score, 52. They added the remaining 5 scores. We had 224 and ESM had 223. We had lost by one stroke and just like that we were no longer in the hunt for the league title. I looked at the faces of our guys and I could see them agonizing over their one or two bad shots. This one really hurt.

The match score was ESM 6–Shelter Island 3.

Our next match was a non-league event against East Hampton on October 3. The two teams enjoyed the day but East Hampton was a little stronger than we were. Jay managed to win and Myles got a half point. It was East Hampton 7½–Shelter Island 1½.

Then it was back to league play against Hampton Bays at home on October 4. The guys played well. Jay Card, Hunter Starzee, Spencer Gibbs, Matt Dunning and Myles Clark won their matches. The score was Shelter Island 8–Hampton Bays 1.

Riverhead was next on October 6, away at the Woods in Riverhead. This course is just how it sounds, tree-lined, and it feels tight from the tee boxes. The course was in nice shape. We had beaten Riverhead pretty easily at home. I didn’t expect this to be that close. Jay shot a 37, Hunter a 47, and Myles a 42 and won their matches. Matt Dunning held on to a half in his match, which was enough to help us to a four-stroke team victory: Shelter Island 6½–Riverhead 2½.

With that victory over Riverhead, the team qualified for the Suffolk County Team Tournament in the spring. Our discussions on the bus ride home focused on beating our league rivals at the County Tournament in May. Our league record is now 6-3.