Last Thursday, our varsity golf team faced off against Korean International School (KIS) at Jisan Golf Resort in Yongin. Despite having been created only a month ago, our golf team was able to emerge on top for a couple of rounds. Notably, John Bhang (9) and Carson Park (10), the two members of SIS Boys Team 2, beat their opponents by five points, equating to a total of five fewer shots taken over the course of 9 holes. As a school, our six SIS teams took 298 shots compared to 272 shots from the six KIS teams, totaling 26 more shots for the team score, ultimately ending with our loss.

“We had a lot of issues,” Joonho Kim (10), SIS Boys Team 3 member, said. “For a majority of both our boys and girls teams, our players weren’t able to generate enough distance with our drives to comfortably take a fairway shot, resulting in us playing catch-up for the rest of each hole.”

Not only was the long-game a pronounced problem, but the short-game also seemed to plague some of our higher-ranked teams. Throughout the tournament, SIS Boys Team 1 and Team 2 had difficulty making seemingly simple putts. Due to the humidity that day, teams experienced a slower ball speed than that of their typical screen golf practices. Moreover, coupled with the fact that our drives weren’t reaching favorable distances, more pressure was applied to every chip and pitch, only exasperating the short-game dilemma.

“We actually got to play on a real course. Since it was our first game, we didn’t enter the competition with the expectation to win,” said Dr. Steven Nave, the high school golf varsity coach. “It was more about course management than anything else, our drives kept going out of bounds and players failed to make minor adjustments depending on their performances.”

On the other hand, KIS performed above par, with their 3rd boys team hitting one under par, even getting an eagle by hitting two fewer shots than the par requirement on the first hole. The KIS Boys Team 3 beat our 3rd team by taking a total of 9 fewer shots, a devastating defeat. Regarding future matches, the golf team expects to play against a variety of international schools, including Seoul Foreign School at Rock Garden and Humphreys at their home course.