At the recent Morrison Invitational, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s men’s golf team played at Fort Lauderdale Country Club on the south course on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The match was played against nine other private/charter schools, including Pine Crest High School, American Heritage High School and a few others.
Since MSD was the only public school participating, the invitational was made a more important match for the team. Entering the match, the team held a record of 7-1.
“We are definitely not at a disadvantage, MSD is a school just like every other school,” sophomore Josh Lieberman said. “It doesn’t matter, private or not, we should be the best that we can be.”
Senior Ryan Shimony, began with a bogey on each of the first three holes, but came back at the fourth hole with pars on holes four and five. Following that, he had two more birdies, as well as another bogey. On the back nine, Shimony had six pars, two bogeys and one birdie. He finished with a 75.
Just like Shimony, senior Jayden Thurasingham also started his day with bogeys on the three first holes. After bouncing back from the rough start, Thurasingham parred the fourth hole. Following this, he had a birdie on hole five, following two more pars. He finished up with one more bogey on hole eight and par on hole nine to finish the front side. Thurasingham began the turn with a mixture of a birdie, par and bogey. To conclude his round, he had 4 pars, one bogey and a birdie. He ended his match with a final score of 75.
Lieberman began his day with three pars in a row. Following a bogey on holes four and five, Lieberman came back with five pars from holes six through 10. He ended his par streak with a birdie on 11. Lieberman then bogeyed 12 and parred 13. To finish up, Lieberman had three bogeys on holes 14, 15 and 18, and two more pars on 16 and 17. His final score ended at a 76.
“My strongest part was definitely putting, I could’ve done better hitting the fairways though,” Lieberman said.
Junior Carson Meredith began with two opening pars. Following this, he had a birdie and three bogeys. After hole six, Meredith hit a few more bogeys, with two birdies on holes nine and 14 and a par on seven. The rest of the invitational for Meredith consisted of more bogeys, and a final score of 83.
The last player who also participated in the match was junior Evan Mazanec. Throughout the entirety of the 18 holes, Mazanec did not have any birdies, but hit a combination of both pars and bogeys. On the first two holes, Mazanec had a pair of bogeys. Following that, he had a par and two additional bogeys. The rest of the invitational for Mazanec was a continuous pattern of pars and bogeys, leading to a final score of 83.
“My biggest competition was probably myself, once I got settled in I started playing well but the front 9 was in my head which led me to not play so well,” Mazanec said.
As a team the Eagles faced some ups and downs, varying from hole to hole, but overall, the team played well, considering they were the only public school in the tournament. At the end, however, Pine Crest came out on top.
The next match for the Eagles will be the Maverick Invitational, held on Monday, Oct. 2 at the Grand Palms Resort and Golf Club. This event will be hosted by Archbishop McCarthy High School. The team hopes to improve from its third place finish last year in the very competitive field.
