The Varsity Boys Golf team has had a particularly strong season this year, even after losing a significant senior class this past year.

The team won NSC Conference championships before winning Regionals too. The team heads to Randall Oaks in West Dundee today to compete in the Sectional championship tournament to try to hit the ultimate goal of getting to head downstate this weekend for the State final tournament. 

Boys Conference: The Scouts took a decisive, 10-stroke win over runner-up Stevenson (311), and third-place team Libertyville (314). Leading the way for the Scouts on this par 72 course  was senior  Asa Thomas, who ultimately won conference with a score of 70, and in second place was sophomore Jack Lamberti, who shot a 71. Further back, Spencer Collis tied for tenth (79), Clayton Trevino tied for 16th shooting (81), senior Jack Slaughter shot an 82 and tied for 21st, and juniors Jonathon Richmond and Connor Harling shot 83 and 89, good for 27th and 41st.

Thomas joined the golf team for the first time since his freshman year.

“This season is a lot different from then. Having been on JV then, and now to play on varsity, there’s a little more pressure and anticipation especially right now because we are in the middle of the playoffs,” he said.

Thomas, who committed to Clemson this past summer, is widely regarded as one of the highest-level high school basketball players in the state.  

“Choosing to play golf this year was truly based on my joy and love for the game,” he said. “Before the season I didn’t really practice because I had so much basketball throughout the summer so I didn’t have many expectations for myself going into the season. After my first couple tournaments, I know that I could compete with some of these guys and I had to get over that mindset.”

Boys Regionals: Last week at Shepherd’s Crook, the Scouts were able to squeak out a nail-biting one-stroke win over conference rivals Libertyville high school. Leading the way for the Scouts was junior Tadgh Burke, who shot one under the course par of 70 and tied for first. Following closely behind was Thomas, who shot a 73 and tied for 4th, and Jack Lamberti who shot a 75 and tied for 8th. Clayton Trevino shot a 79 and tied for 18th, senior Spencer Collis shot an 82 and tied for 24th, and sophomore Quinn Brown shot a 87 which was good to tie for 30th. Burke, who had been a top golfer for the Scouts all season, had to miss Conference due to illness, but clearly, that didn’t prevent him from an electric performance at IHSA Regional championships. 

“We were all on the team together last year except for Asa, but a main difference this year was that we all have more trust in each other, just because we have had more time to build team chemistry,” Burke said.

Burke said the team responded well after a slow start at Shepherds Crook last week. 

“Going into Regionals we all knew that we just had to trust in our games and everything would work out. I didn’t get off to the best start on the front nine. I made a couple mistakes, but I kept telling myself to just grind it out. I kept looking forward to the back nine because it’s considered the easier nine at Shepherds crook. I knew I could put up a good score on the back so that gave me some extra confidence. My putter ended up getting pretty hot on the back and I started to make a lot of putts. After the round we were all pretty excited about winning, we were down 16 strokes at one point to Libertyville so to see us come back and win was awesome.”