La Plata golf starts season with a sweep
La Plata edges Chopticon in SMAC golf opener
La Plata’s Gavin Ganter is far from a stranger to competitive golf, but Wednesday afternoon’s Southern Maryland Athletic Conference season-opening meet at Swan Point Yacht & Country Club in Issue still was a relatively significant day for him as it marked his first high school match.
The freshman wasted no time making an impression, shooting the low round of the day in helping the Warriors to a sweep in the quad-match with Chopticon, Huntingtown and Leonardtown.
Ganter fired a 1-over-par 37 to lead La Plata to an aggregate 178. Chopticon shot a matching score, but La Plata won on the tiebreak by virtue of it’s fifth-best golfer posting a lower score than Chopticon’s. Huntingtown shot 188, while Leonardtown came in with a 219.
“It was good until the ninth hole,” said Ganter, whose group began play on No. 5, of his round. “I made a triple [bogey], but I finished 2-under in the last couple holes. I had a good bounce-back to finish the round birdie-birdie.”
Ganter’s score was just one of two sub-40 rounds put up in Wednesday’s match, but his teammates did just enough to earn La Plata (3-0 overall/ SMAC) a sweep in the first match of the season. Lazerus Sutton, Jack Koch, Jake Gleason and Jake Ellis each shot matching 47s. The top four
scores for each team comprise the team score, with the fifth score needed to break a tie. On Wednesday the Warriors’ 47 was nine strokes better than Chopticon’s fifth-best score.
For La Plata’s freshman, it was a good way to begin his high school career.
“It was nice to get in the first high school match,” Ganter said. “It was a little different pressure than just playing a normal tournament because you have to play for your team. It’s a different kind of grind than it is playing just by yourself. You want to make your team proud with your score . ... I’m pretty excited. I think it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a different experience. I have to do something here for the team. I hope everyone plays well.”
The Warriors will look to follow it up next Thursday at White Plains Golf Course when they are slated to play against Calvert, Northern and Westlake.
Chopticon’s DJ Littleford carded the second-lowest round of the day, finishing a stroke behind Ganter.
“I was pretty satisfied,” Littleford said. “With a triple on one hole, to get one back was doing pretty well. Shooting 38, not a bad round. All pars, so it was pretty much what I expected. Could have been a little lower, but it’s all good.”
Ben Fowler shot 42 for the Braves (2-1), while Josh Gatton (44) and Ben D’Angelo (54) rounded out the team’s counting scores. Chopticon is next scheduled to play at White Plains next Wednesday against Thomas Stone and St. Charles.
Jack Dugan shot the low round for Leonardtown (0-3), finishing with a 48. Ryan Ahern (54), Will Kurtz (58) and Brett Jarvis (59) comprised the rest of the Raiders’ low four. Leonardtown is scheduled to play Lackey, North Point and Patuxent next Wednesday at Breton Bay Golf & Country Club in Leonardtown.
Huntingtown (1-2) was paced by Cade Nichols’ 44. Amitha Patel shot 46, while Ryan McGuffin and Tripp Bagarus each shot 49. The performance was a bit frustrating, as Hurricanes head coach John McGuffin had seen his team play significantly better heading into Wednesday’s match.
“I think that it was more of a mental game out here today for a lot of our players,” he said. “We shot better the other day in a scrimmage situation. This was the first real match. We have to settle down a little bit. We have to work on course management. I think all the players can hit good shots. They’re capable of hitting good shots, but when they got behind a little bit I think they pushed and tried to maybe extend a little bit beyond their means and then that can get you in more trouble. We’re going to use today as a learning experience.”
Huntingtown will get its chance to show some improvement next Wednesday when it plays Great Mills and McDonough at Hawthorne Country Club in La Plata.
“I know it’s in our capabilities,” McGuffin said. “Not to hang our heads, but to come back and get back to work and shave off some strokes. We’ll see them again in the SMAC tournament and districts and hopefully by that time we’ve made improvements. They’re quality clubs. It was good being here today at Swan Point. We thank La Plata for hosting it and we saw some good action.”