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Freshman Kyle Wornell, sophomore Kyler Brewer-Hill and junior Tyler Fontenot work on their short game in preparation for the Class 5A state golf tournament, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at Socorro.
CNJ staff photo: Tony Bullocks
Cats hope experience will help at 5A meet
If experience means anything, the Clovis High boys golf team should do better in this year’s Class 5A state tournament on Monday and Tuesday at Socorro.
Although the Wildcats have no seniors this year, three of their players competed in last year’s state event, and a fourth, freshman Corbin Best, made the trip with the team.
“Experience definitely helps, knowing how to handle it,” said the eldest player, junior Tyler Fontenot.
The Cats left Saturday for Socorro. They were to play practice rounds Saturday and today at the New Mexico Tech course before teeing off early Monday morning.
They are seeded sixth in the seven-school field, second-year coach Cal Fullerton said.
“We’ve been playing a lot better as the season goes on,” he said. “Some of these kids came right out of basketball, and you don’t get a good feel for practice for a month or so.”
Joining Fontenot are sophomore Kyler Brewer-Hill and three freshmen — Kyle Wornell, Raul Trujillo and Corbin Best.
Fontenot is the team’s designated No. 1 player. He finished in a tie for fourth in last year’s event in Albuquerque, shooting a second-day 74 for a two-day total of 152.
He and Brewer-Hill have also played the Socorro course during summer Junior Golf.
“It’s about the same yardage at NMMI (New Mexico Military in Roswell),” Fontenot said. “This is a lot narrower and shorter (than most courses). You have to lay up and play smart.
“If you keep it straight (in the fairway), you’ll be in good shape. At this course, you’re probably going to shoot low 70s or mid-80s. If you have trouble staying in the fairway, you might not be able to recover.”
The Cats are coming off a one-stroke victory over Hobbs in District 4-5A competition on Monday, a surprisingly narrow margin against a team they’ve dominated all season.
“I guess we just didn’t come to play,” Best said. “Hobbs definitely came to play; they wanted to go to state.
“We didn’t play that good at the beginning of the year, but we’ve started to get things going. You want to play better at the end of the year, when it counts.”
Despite lacking experience, Trujillo has contributed for the Cats this season. He was their leading scorer in two tournaments.
“I played pretty good in those two tournaments,” he said. “I’m pretty eager and excited. I just want to play good, play two decent rounds.”
Fullerton said La Cueva is probably the team to beat, over defending champion Rio Rancho. Of the seven teams, all are from the Albuquerque area except the Cats and seventh-seeded Alamogordo.
Fullerton is counting on experience from last year to help the team. He said they are hoping for a trophy, which would be a top-three finish.
“We set two goals at the beginning of the year,” he said. “The first goal was to win district and the second is to get a trophy at state.”
