Tryouts

[masterhacker]

So I've played golf for about 4-4.5 months now and I decided to try out for the school team. Today was the first day of tryouts. We were split into two groups ( pretty much the good kids/crappy kids) I was put with the crappy ones because I have only played for a short period of time. My group was on the putting green for the majority of the time. Then we went to the chipping green while the better guys finished up on the range. We then had some tips thrown our way about chipping and other fundamental things then for about the last 25 minutes we got to actually hit the balls on the range. We were to only hit out high loft clubs today. Luckily, before the coaches started to watch, I was hacking the ball very badly. But then hit a few nice contact shots and the coaches noticed and started watching me. I think they were impressed by my ability to strike the ball so well. The only thing was that I could not get my aiming right. So they tried to help me with that, giving me some tips. They also were handing me different clubs to hit to see how I did with the lower loft clubs as well. Overall, I think I impressed them. Which is great considering how nervous I was about this... Now I just have to keep my game up the next 3 days of tryouts. Wish me luck for the rest of the days for tryouts!! I will post updates about how it's going! Thanks for reading!

[flopster]

First off, don't describe yourself as "crappy" when describing your golf ability, just accept that your new to this game and you have a journey ahead of you. Try not to let yourself get overwhelmed with all the direction everyone will be offering you, Mike and Erik probably have given you some things to work on and it would be a good idea to concentrate on what they advise and focus on that only. Too often people who mean well will cause more harm than help when it comes to new players, you really need to resist experimenting around a whole lot and focus on fundamentals only.

[tristanhilton85]

Good luck. I wasn't a good player in high school (I'm still not really good), but playing in high school was a great experience. You get the opportunity to play some great courses and play golf that matters. Stick with it. I hope you make the team.

[jsgolfer]

High School Golf was indeed a great time, but it was so long ago (30 years ago, wow how time flies), our team still played 18 holes for every match. I know, in Maine, our class was one of the last ones to play 18, they all went to 9 hole matches (mid-80's?), except for the state tournaments.

Not sure if any schools get to play the 18 hole matches during the week anymore? We had tryouts but everyone made the team ( I think we only had 10 on the team my sophomore year), the tryouts were for playing position only, we always took 8 to every tournament, 5 starters and 3 reserves who played with the other schools reserves (they were not guaranteed to get in 18 though).

I can remember  we used to get $5 for meal money for certain trips and we always stopped at McDonald's.

Good luck making the team.

[SavvySwede]

Don't get discouraged. Understand that there is a learning curve and just do the best you can to improve and coaches will take notice. Right now you need to keep it simple and stick to fundamentals. At your level the coaches are looking for someone with fundamentals because you can improve very quickly if you start off on the right foot in this game. I tried out for my high school team freshman year after only having played for two months. Ended up being cut that year because there was a lot of talent but by my senior year of high school I was the best player on the team and beating guys who had been playing for 10+years.

[Parker0065]

I gotta dig way back in the archives to remember high school golf tryouts about 35 years ago.

It's easy to sit hear now and say no big deal don't let it get to you, but I do remember that there was a ton of pressure. My school wasn't your typical "show up and make the team" program by any stretch! Our golf team was one of the best in the State during my time in high school so you had to "bring it" just to get on the team and had to actually have some real (D1/D2 potential) game to get on Varsity.

I will just say enjoy the experience and work hard if golf is your desire.

[masterhacker]

Thanks for all the responses guys! I've been busy with school, but since I've been off we've had 2 more days of tryouts. The second day I hit 7 over on 6 holes AND I had a birdie. But I still did better than 3 people so that is still good enough to get on the team. The today I I hit par on the first hole, bogey, then 2 triples!!! BUT; I managed to par out being 7 over after 9 holes. I impressed the coaches today. They told me first hand. They said with practice I could turn all those doubles and triples to bogeys. So it's looking good so far! Thursday is the last day for tryouts so I'm pretty anxious/nervous about it. Hopefully I can manage to pull a spot on the team!