Every year, many teams look to perform and improve from their previous seasons. This applies to many teams at LFHS, but especially the Varsity Boys Golf team, who didn’t end their last season the way they hoped. 

In 2023, the team continued their success by winning Conference and Regional titles. However, later in the playoffs, the team fell short of going down State after being eliminated in Sectionals. 

Last year, the team sent senior Tadgh Burke to the State Tournament as an individual competitor, but failed to send the team to the State Tournament for the first time since 2016. This upcoming season, the Scouts Golf team hopes to turn it around and return to the Tournament.

Led by Captains Huston O’Neil and Jack Lamberti, this year’s team has shown signs of potential.

“Our expectation for golf at Lake Forest is to always go down to state and compete to win it,” Lamberti said. 

Along with Lamberti and O’Neil, the team has many returners including junior Jack Douglass who competed in the IHSA playoffs last season. Joining the team this year are two sophomores, Raunak Wadhera and Michael Hahn. 

“Raunak and Michael are great additions to the team and will be for years to come. They both have very bright golf futures ahead of them,” O’Neil said. 

The Scouts have a strong roster with experienced seniors along with talented juniors and sophomores, but must compete everyday to make their score count. 

“This year there are 13 varsity players,” Coach Jim Matheson said. “This can be challenging not only from a coaching perspective, but also from a playing opportunity perspective because of less playing time.” 

So far, the team has had some good tournaments, and some where they haven’t performed as well. 

They had a good team performance at Bryn Mawr Country Club where Evanston High School hosted a Quad Tournament. Lake Forest placed second in a talented field which included Evanston, New Trier, and Oak Park River Forest. 

They also won the Quad Tournament they hosted at Lake Bluff Golf Course last weekend, in a field with Carmel Catholic, Loyola Academy, and Zion Benton, leading the quad by 15 strokes. 

The team is also 1-1 in conference meets, beating Zion Benton and falling short of Stevenson by only one stroke. 

The Scouts have talent, but must be dominant in order to continue on the path back to the State Tournament. “A challenge for us is that anyone can go low, but we need to work on our consistency,” Lamberti said. 

If the Scouts can play consistent golf, the team believes they have what it takes to return to the State Tournament. 

The Scouts’ regular season runs until early October until the IHSA playoffs begin. In this time, they hope to put themselves in a position to be successful and reestablish the expectations of Lake Forest Golf.