The Oberlin men’s varsity golf team competed in its second tournament last Saturday in a dual match against Hiram College.

“We lost our [number] two and three [matches], and so it came down to number ones on both teams,” said Head Coach Blake New. “We won the 18th hole to tie the match. It was pretty fun.”

“I got sunburned, though, which wasn’t very fun,” he added.

New noted that because the tournament was structured as a match play instead of a stroke play, “it was kind of like going back in history — the way they used to play college golf...because we only had one team to compete against.”

“We did much better this week,” said senior Tom King. “We don’t usually have match plays and it was nice to do something different.” King, who is currently the Yeomen’s number one golfer, commented his performance this season has gone “very, very well compared with past seasons.”

To ensure that all does, in fact, go well, King is fine-tuning his short game. “[I am] working on putting. In the past that’s been one of the biggest weaknesses,” he said.

“Tom was losing up until the end, where he won the last hole and tied,” said junior Craig Betchart. “He didn’t give up. It was really good.”

Said Betchart of his own performance, “I played pretty terribly. Golf is a game where you have ups and downs, and I just had a down day.”

For first-year Saul Flores and senior Prithvi Reddy, however, it was an “up” day. “Saul, our number five [player], did really well; he won,” said New.

“I’m very excited to have won a match. This was one of the first tournaments I’ve ever played in,” said Flores. “The seniors were really supportive.”

“Prithvi Reddy won his match in a pretty exciting way. He won on the last hole,” Flores said.

“[Reddy] had four penalty strokes on the bay, so that was a bit unfortunate. He was down and then he came back and showed a lot of guts to get it at the end,” New said. “It’s taken me four years to get in his thick head, and now it’s really showing. He’s had the talent for the game all along.”

“Coach New is really good. He’s really organized, and makes sure we have good instruction,” said Flores. “If a few things go our way we could have a pretty successful season.”