Westy splits with LC and AOF

The Martlets made the short trip to nearby Farmington Woods on what turned out to be a pretty good day for golf (but are there any bad days, really?). The Martlets played well at times but ultimately fell to the Pelicans by only 2 strokes and earned a victory over the Winged Beavers on their home course by 13 strokes. The loss to the Pelicans was the second of the season for the Martlets, but the gap was considerably narrower this afternoon. Matteo De Luca ‘24 fired an impressive 40 on the tight, tree-lined Farmington Woods course, made the more difficult by the windy conditions. De Luca earned co-medalist honors for the day with a trio of Pelicans. This old coach knows well that the most important distance in golf is the six inches between the ears, and today that hard-learned lesson was on full display. In a lengthy team meeting prior to the match, the Martlets discussed the wisdom of leaving the driver in the bag on many holes and committing to keeping the ball in the fairway. Additionally, we had a productive whiteboard roundtable about leaving the ball in the best position on lag putts and chips around the green. Apparently, we’ll have to review those topics: the team collectively sent 7 balls out-of-bounds and had three 4-putts. That’s a lot of strokes to leave on the course, and losing to the Pelicans by 2 leaves a mark a little bit. De Luca also had the shot of the day, actually two shots of the day: on the long uphill 7th he hit a long iron to 10 feet after a wayward drive found the trees, and then on his next full swing on the short 8th he hit a wedge to 8 feet. The rest of the team had their ups and downs but for the most part played with grit and grace: Nick Dowling ‘24 and Santino DeFazio ‘24 carded a pair of 42s, and Blake Burke ‘25 contributed a 43. Jack Fichthorn ‘26 had a 45 and Grant Owen ‘24 came in with a 50 to complete the scoring. The team enjoyed a post mortem visit to Chipotle to salve their wounds. The Martlets will get another crack at Farmington Woods later in the season, so hopefully we’ll be able to improve on this result. The team has a day off on Saturday, so they’ll devote themselves to working on their short games and re-reading Bobby Jones’s iconic Down the Fairway. See you on the tee!