5th Man on 1972 TFHS Golf Team Is Tough Achievement

Golf as a team sport is usually over by the time a person finishes college unless that person is an elite golfer who plays in the Ryder Cup or Solheim Cup. The memories of team golf last much longer and are usually quite strong as playing this individual sport as a team creates some interesting scenarios. In most team sports there are a limited number of individuals who compete for a certain position on the team. In golf, everyone wants to be the number one player and there is usually strong competition just to make the traveling squad of four to six players. My high school golf experience was quite unique and wonderful. My family moved from Boise, Idaho to Twin Falls, Idaho the summer before my sophomore year. Golf was a popular sport in Boise but in Twin Falls, a town of 30,000, golf was the most popular and successful sport in town. The Twin Falls High school golf team had won 6 of the last 11 State Championships in golf and expectations were that the trend would continue. The team played and practiced at Twin Falls Municipal Golf Course. Built in 1931, the course featured two par fives, six par threes and ten par fours for a total par of 68. The greens were tiny and built for flood irrigation. They sloped severely from back to front and the sides were almost straight up and down. This was a great course to learn to hit accurate irons shots and develop and inventive short game. The course is short and has an odd par but it has hosted the Idaho Open eight times. As a sophomore I was a bit overwhelmed by the talent level. The two best players, Kevin Packard and Gary Duncan, seemed to shoot under par every round and there were 6 other players on the team that could shoot par or better at any time. The qualifyings for the team were very fair. Early in the season all spots were open to those shooting the lowest scores. I averaged two or three over par at that time and just could not seem to make a match. As the season progressed the spots available for qualifying decreased as players earned immunity by being medalist or shooting under par in matches. The final qualifying of the season came about and there was only one spot available. Maybe I could make a match and if I played well be selected for the state tournament team. The qualifying was to play two nine hole rounds in a two day period. I shot 34 the first round and was thrilled to see that no one else had played well. The three nearest scores were 38, 39 and a 40 by Dave Warner, a Senior who had made most of the matches that year. The next day I played well again and shot a 34 for a total score of 68. Based on the previous day’s scores I was absolutely assured that I had finally qualified for a match. As I waited for the rest of the team to finish I went out and played four holes on the back nine that looped back to the clubhouse. As I entered the clubhouse I noticed the whole team gathered around the coach and there seemed to be quite a bit of excitement. Were my team mates that happy that I had finally made a match? I walked up to the coach and said, “I made the match, right coach.” The coach looked up and said, “Sorry McNee, Warner shot 26.” This did not compute at first. 26 + 40 = 66 so that is lower than 68……but wait, no one shoots 26, they had to be playing a joke on me. Unfortunately for me it was no joke. Warner had made par on the first hole (the only par five on the front 9) and then birdied the next 8 holes. He did go out and play the back nine and made nine straight pars for an 18 hole score of 60 which is a pretty good score for the 5^thman on a high school golf team. The team went on to win the State Championship that year and I had an unforgettable memory of both disappointment for myself and pure joy for an unbelievable achievement by a team mate.