This season, boys’ golf finished third in the De Anza League with an 8-4 record. Although the team had many solid players — Palo Alto, who ranked first by the end of the season — proved to be their strongest opponent as the Falcons lost to them both at home and away on March 20 and April 15, respectively. 

Junior No. 1 player Aidan Smith found the team to be much better in comparison to last season, mainly due to the strength of each individual player. Only freshman Mars Ching is a new member to the team; all other players returned for the season.

Over the season, the players had their individual challenges. Smith had difficulty finding his swing, which he attributed to over-practicing. To address his issue, he decided to switch to more of a “quality over quantity” approach.

“I started growing bad habits so I needed to just take breaks from golf,” Smith said. “I found that when I play on the course, I play a lot better than in the driving range.”

Even with an experienced roster, the team did not perform as well as they hoped at League Finals at the Bay View Golf Club on May 1, placing sixth out of seven teams. However, both Smith and junior No. 2 player Nicholas Okada were able to qualify for CCS individually through their low scores at league finals; Okada notably placed top five among 60 players. Both were not able to qualify for future rounds at CCS.Looking forward to the next school year, Smith is planning to play as much as he can off-season to be ready and in shape.
“The rest of the players need to practice more to get better,” Smith said. “When we go into the next season, you want to be in the swing of things.”