The golf season officially started for Springstead on August 28, 2018 and getting back into the swing of things after summer break can be hard work and the weather didn’t help.
“They had the summer off, now it’s time to get back to work,” Coach Maharaj said. “We did a lot of work in the past two weeks to get back into playing shape.”
During the Springstead – Central – Lecanto Boys Matchup, all eyes were on Central Junior, Shane Smith and Springstead Senior, Ryan Maharaj.
“I have a relatively young team,” Coach Roger Maharaj said. “I am expecting a lot out of my juniors this year, I am confident that Ryan Maharaj will do his part as well, but I want my juniors and sophomores to play to their potential and I think they can do it.”
Roger Maharaj has been coaching golf at Springstead High School for the past two years and brought the Eagles to district runner-up back in 2017.
Tyson Ellis going into his 6th year as Central’s golf coach went up against Weeki Wachee and Pasco the day before at Southern Hills Golf Course.
“We are not where we expected, we only had a week of practice leading into this,” Ellis said.
“Southern Hills is a tough course, we struggled a little bit, but it was a learning experience.”
“It’s not how you start; it’s how we finish,” Ellis added looking towards the 2018 District tournaments in October.
For Central Seniors, Ethan Turner and Austin McKinney the goal for them would be to shoot in the mid low 40’s every match according to Ellis.
“We are coming off of regionals the last two years back to back, so obviously we want to keep that going. Shooting in the mid to low 40’s is going to help us,” Ellis said. “We want them to keep progressing, be leaders and help the younger guys out too.”
Unfortunately the players were only able to get four holes before the game was suspended due to the weather.
From the Golfers
Ryan Maharaj from Springstead
“Today I was doing well until we had to quit, I was one under and I just birdied the last hole,” Maharaji said. “My putting could have been better but overall everything was good. My iron and chipping was fantastic, but I need to work on my driver. I need to get my driver accuracy down, that (I feel) will help me a lot.”
Shane Smith from Central
“I started off on the bad side. I kept playing, trying to do my thing,” Smith said. “They are all pretty easy (holes) it’s just myself… (I was) struggling with myself.”
Peter Ansetti from Springstead
“I was very off focus,” Ansetti said. “I struggled a bit because we didn’t get a practice in, like get a warm up before the game. I only hit about 10 balls and then we took thirty minutes off before we hit the green and then we had to stop in the middle of it.”
Next Match up: Springstead pairs off with Central on September 4 at Hernando Oaks.
