For the first three years of Kila Cannon’s golf career, she played with the same three girls, all a year older than her. When they all graduated last spring, she didn’t know if she would have any teammates in the fall. Luckily, several girls decided to join the golf team. With a total of seven girls on the team, they were able to have a full varsity team, something they hadn’t had in years. Cannon said, “I’m gonna admit it was sad, but also was like something new I have never experienced”. 

 A qualifier is something players do the day before a tournament to see who will go to the tournament. Each player plays a round of golf going up against their own teammates and the top five scores go to the next tournament. With the golf team having multiple dual sport athletes, players who attended each tournament varied.  

 Harlie Fischer, a freshman at Polson High School, just started golf this past summer and said her favorite parts were “all the girls especially when they would stay the night at tournaments.” Senior Ianna Young also played golf for the first time this fall. Young’s first tournament was extremely difficult, but the season got better as she got to do more of her favorite parts like “spending time with the girls.” 

When headed to a golf tournament, players show up an hour before the start. The player warms-up by practicing hitting range balls and putting on the greens to see how fast they are. After a horn sounds they begin. They play with three other players from different teams. 

Cannon was the only one who made it to the state tournament this year, taking 4th all-conference with a score of 88. Cannon says the hardest part mentally is “having to maintain your temper.” Although the girls’ team didn’t have the success they have had in the past several years, they are setting up for success in the years to come. 

m, the Polson High School boys’ golf team generated some success. Even though they didn’t have a single returning player, they had someone from each grade play including seniors Max Violett, Branson Moss, and Wyatt Wadsworth; junior Skyler Probert; sophomores Ryan Lake and Jarret Seifert; and freshmen Connor Turner, Max Milton, Carson Emerson, Fox Gilchrist, Aristo Cannon, and Christopher Sorrell. With a total of eleven, they had a good season with much improvement from all players. 

A golf practice is about an hour and a half long. During the practices, players will hit range balls which is where players hit with all different clubs and hit balls repetitively to make improvements on their stroke. Then they will work on core game and special shots like chipping out of the sand. At the end, they all come together for some team putting, working on all aspects of their game. 

After putting in so much practice time, freshman Carson Emerson qualified for state as an individual qualifier, shooting an 83 at Old Works in Anaconda where divisionals were hosted. Emerson tied for 33rd at state, shooting only 21 over par. Another freshman, Max Milton, took third at divisionals only one stroke behind the first place tie, and then he went on to state where he took the state championship on his home course shooting a minus-eight. 

Milton has been golfing his “entire life, like, since I was able to walk.” He says the overall hardest course this year was “Libby because the holes were super tight with trees, and so you have to hit really straight or else you will be in the trees”. On the other hand, Branson Moss said the hardest course for him was “Buffalo Hills in Kalispell because of the out of bounds.” Regardless of grade level and experience, the boys’ golf team put in the time to learn how to play better on courses all throughout western Montana.