Cold temperatures force delayed golf start

By Sam Waller

The Albany Lions golf team restarted its season Wednesday, March 2, at Hawley after an abortive attempt last week.

The Lions were scheduled to open last week at Haskell. Even with the event moved up two days to Tuesday, Feb. 22 in anticipation of winter weather, conditions forced golfers to abandon play after just one hole.

Albany returns four of five players from last year’s district champions, including district medalist Lute Wheeler. Also back are Ayden Balliew, Houston Heatly, and Koy Cauble.

The core group will be augmented by Taren Farmer, Ty Richards, Brody Brown, and Luke Marshall.

After finishing eighth at regional last year, coach Tate Thompson expects the Lions to take a step forward this spring.

“Some of the kids who were playing multiple sports last year are just going to be playing golf this year,” Thompson said. “That’ll help being able to focus on it and just practice that.”

The District 10-2A tournament is scheduled for Monday, April 4 and Wednesday, April 6 at Shady Oaks Golf Course. In preparation, Thompson has entered the Lions in Eula and Baird tournaments that will be played at the course.

“It will be a little bit tougher course, but it’ll be tougher for everybody,” he said. “One of the things I wanted was to get tournaments on that course so the players could get used to it, especially the greens.”

Thompson said the main task early in the season is filling the open lineup spot.

“It’s going to be about seeing who can put up a good score and be our fifth guy,” he said. “If we can get somebody to break 100, go mid-90s, that would be a good fourth and fifth score for us.”