As the middle of the season rolls over them, the Indian River High School golf team is struggling to find consistency in their matches. Despite a win on Monday at Lake Forest’s Shawnee Country Club, the Indians fell to hosts Caesar Rodney at Tuesday’s tri-match, which included Laurel.
Coastal Point • RYAN SAXTON:
Neil Beahan instructs his golfers and tries to reinforce that they need to stay focused and keep motivated.
The match at Wild Quail saw the Indians’ highest score on the golf course since the start of the season: a regrettable 180. Indian River now sits at 5-3, with plenty of the season left in front of them.
The Indians saw some downtime from organized practices and matches, while spring break and unscheduled games left their past two weeks mostly quiet. But Coach Neil Beahan doesn’t attribute Tuesday’s sub-par performance to time off the course — rather to a lack of focus and motivation.
“The vacation time isn’t it,” he said. “We just aren’t going out prepared. The guys really have to take a look at things. It’s a long season, and we can’t afford to lose focus at this point.”
The team held an intervention following Tuesday’s loss, to analyze and critique what happened.
“Caesar Rodney came out relaxed,” he said. “That’s what our guys have to do, instead of freezing up. Some of the guys are forgetting that it doesn’t come down to having the glorious swing or driving the most yards. It comes down to getting the ball in the cup in the fewest strokes.”
Indian River capitalized the past two years in the conference, under Beahan, who said that if they’re going to do it again, the team is going to have to change their views.
“We’ve gone undefeated [in the conference] in the past,” he said, “and we really don’t want to give that up. We need to get back on track and stay focused.”
He added that the team needs to let bad shots go and move on.
“The bad holes are snowballing with some of the guys,” he said. “They just need to shake them off instead of letting it get to them. We’ve got a strong team. I think we’re stronger than our competition most of the time. That’s when I know a loss like this is coming down to the mental aspects of the game.”
Indian River will host their next three matches at Cripple Creek, starting with Dover on Friday, April 27, at 3:30 p.m.
“It’ll be nice to be playing at home for the next few matches,” said Beahan, who hopes the familiarity of the course will give his team the edge. “The match against Dover will really make a statement for us and let us know where we are.”
Indian River will host Delmarva Christian on Tuesday, May 1, and Laurel on Thursday, May 3.