It was another strong day on the course for Frontier Regional’s Mikey Corduff and Gunnar Moore, and Greenfield High School’s Ryan Cote.
Corduff shot a 78 on the par-71 course in the MIAA Division 2 Tournament at the Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown, good for 14th out of 101 total participants. That number also put him seventh for golfers who qualified individually.
Moore and Cote each shot an 81, tied for 12th in the individual group.
Trevor Lopez of Winchester took first place with a 71, leading his team to a first-place team showing at the tournament.
While Corduff had a strong finish, he felt his score would have been much better if he improved one area of his game.
“My short game was good today,” Corduff said. “I made a good amount of putts. My irons were OK but my driver was not good. I feel like I could have shot better if I just drove it better. It was just one of those days.”
The junior had his best hole of the day on No. 12. After getting into the rough off the tee, he made a good swing to get out of it, and eventually sank a birdie putt.
“I started on the sixth hole,” Corduff said. “Getting out of the rough and earning a birdie was a good momentum builder.”
As an eighth-grader, Moore was one of the youngest golfers in the field. He played in the state tournament last year when Frontier qualified as a team, but qualified as an individual this year when the Red Hawks failed to make the cut.
He felt more poised at this year’s tournament.
“It’s really cool just to be at the event as one of the youngest kids,” Moore said. “I learned a lot of stuff from last year to now. I also learned from [Corduff], he taught me how to stay calm out there and not get ahead of myself. Qualifying was exciting. It’s disappointing the team didn’t come but I’m happy I made it here. I can’t be too disappointed.”
Moore had a goal of shooting in the mid-70’s, but opposite of Corduff, his drives were solid but he didn’t play as well as he would have liked on the greens.
The Red Hawks just missed qualifying as a team for the state tournament, though the goal is certainly to return the full squad to the event in 2020.
“I’m really excited for the future of the program,” Moore said. “We’re going to have a strong team next year. Hopefully we do better in Western Mass. to have a chance to win it next year.”
For Cote, it was a rough start to his round on Tuesday.
After 10 holes, the Greenfield sophomore was 10-over par and nervous about how the day would end.
He heated up however, shooting even-par on the next two holes before making a long putt for a birdie on No. 2. He wound up shooting even-par over his final eight holes en route to the 81.
Cote broke his thumb midway through the season, missing four weeks before returning for the team’s final match. He then shot an 83 in the WMass Div. 2 sectional to qualify for the state tournament individually.
While rehabbing the thumb injury, he was only allowed to work on putting, which he credits for his strong performances in the postseason tournaments.
“It forced me to work on putting, which I needed at the time,” Cote said. “The birdie putt on two gave me a lot more confidence. It gave me confidence going into the next couple holes. I never would have been putting for that many hours if not for the injury.”
Tuesday’s tournament marked the end of the season for Cote, who feels he improved mightily throughout the fall campaign.
“I never would have gotten here without a bunch of people helping me,” Cote said. “My coach Josh Cook helped me to put in the work.”