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St. Luke's Golf Looks To Defend FAA Title
The St. Luke’s Golf team is looking forward to another successful season on the links with many from last year’s championship-winning team returning to defend the FAA title.
The 2016 season was one of the best in St. Luke’s history and the team is looking to bring the same form that saw SLS golf go 7-1-1 and lift the FAA Championship.
The squad is as large as it has ever been with 19 players all looking to contribute throughout the season. Of the 19 golfers, eleven recently spent five days in Florida working on their game and Co-Head Coach Jason Warner is hoping the time there will help get the team off to a good start: “It’s a great warm up as we get to play a lot of golf in a short period of time. We had some kids shoot some great scores down there so hopefully they can bring that form into the season.”
With the size of the team continually growing, there are a number of new faces on the team and Warner is excited by what he has seen so far: “There are some new kids on the team this year and we have some freshman and even some 8th graders which is really great to see. They have some really nice golf swings so I am looking forward to seeing more of them.”
St. Luke’s only loss last year came in a head-to-head match with The Hopkins School and Warner believes the Hilltoppers will be one of the biggest challenges again this time out. “Hopkins beat us last year and they were a young team so I expect them to be strong again. If our guys play their best golf though, I would back them against anyone. Brunswick is no longer in the FAA but I think that will be a tough head-to-head match too.”
The weather has not been cooperative so far which has limited the amount of time the team has spent on the course since Florida and also forced the opening match of the season against The King School to be rescheduled. However, Warner, who is serving his fourth year as coach, expects a lot from his team once the competition starts: “Our goal is to win every match we play. We want to win the FAA’s again and to do well in the New England tournament. Jack Maguire and Mark Gertsen will start as our #1 and #2 golfers and are so reliable in those slots. However, we also have Jake Lustig and David Ball who are the senior captains right behind them. If they turn it on they can score just as well as our top two so we have some great competition within the squad.”
Warner is clearly confident in his squad but knows the repeat will not be easy and that his team will need to work hard throughout the season to have a shot. He concluded, “This year I am going to stress that the guys work more on their short game rather than going out and playing 9 holes. As a team, we hit the ball extremely well but we don’t chip and putt as well as I know we can. If we can improve in those areas we can go all the way.”
The St. Luke’s Golf team plays its first match on Thursday 4/6 against Brunswick at New Canaan Country Club.
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 40 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Leading with Humanity curriculum builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
