Golfers head to state

By Sam Waller

Albany golfers will be relying on experience gained last year as they return to the Class 2A boys state golf tournament, to be played Monday-Tuesday, May 22-23 at Lions Municipal Golf Course in Austin.

A year ago, the Lions finished fifth in their first team appearance at state since 1994. This year’s lineup will include four juniors who played at state last year – Ayden Balliew, Houston Heatly, Luke Marshall, and Lute Wheeler – along with freshman Huffman Heatly. Sophomore Ty Richards, who was part of the state lineup in 2022, and senior Koy Cauble will serve as alternates.

The Lions are one of five teams who qualified for state in 2022 that also made the 12-team field this year. Others are defending champions Lindsay and Vega, who went to a playoff to decide the title last year, New Home (finished seventh), and Mason (eighth).

“It definitely takes some pressure off just because we’ve been there before,” said Balliew. “We won’t have those first-time nerves, and we can just play golf.”

Wheeler, who finished 22nd to lead the Lions in 2022, said the team knows what to expect.

“We know the layout of the course a little bit better and how to read the greens,” he said.

And that will be extremely important, coach Tate Thompson said.

“Our practice round is mainly going to be reading the greens and getting a feel for those,” Thompson said.

Balliew said weather conditions will also affect how the course plays.

“It’s humid in Austin, and that will definitely help,” he said. “The greens will be nice and green and have a little moisture on them. They might roll a little slower.”

After a coaches meeting, Albany will play its practice round at 2:50 p.m. Sunday, May 21.

Albany players will begin teeing off at 9:10 a.m. Monday, starting on No. 10. The Lions are grouped with Grapeland and Weimar for the first round. Second-round pairings will be based on first-round results.

“It’s a course-management course,” Thompson said. “You’ve got to have a plan for every tee box. Our guys might hit their drivers on three or four holes.”

The practice round will allow the Lions to formulate their plans, especially for holes that can cause trouble.

“For example, No. 1 is a hard dogleg right,” Thompson said. “You’ve got to hit about a 210-yard shot to have a shot at the green. You can’t hit a driver and be on the fairway. You can’t go for the green because the trees are too tall.”

“We don’t need to try anything crazy and go for the hole,” Thompson said. “We’ve just got to score, hit fairways, hit greens, and two-putt.”

Balliew said the Lions will stay with the same approach that got them through district and regional competition.

“We kept our heads down and focused, just played our game,” he said. “We didn’t try too hard, and it took us this far.”

Albany hasn’t played a competitive round since the Region II-2A tournament on April 17-18. Thompson said the Lions put the time off to good use.

“I think it’s been good for us because a lot of these kids have access to better courses,” he said. “We’ve been focusing on them going to courses that are challenging. Our course is great, but they need to be playing places that are longer and more challenging.”