The Vineyard Golf team has enjoyed its strongest season in a long time, going 10-3 and capturing the Cape and Islands League title for the first time in 13 years.
“We just started off with success, which we have not done in the past, and kept it rolling all season,” said head coach Henry Smith.
At the head of the foursomes has been senior Jacoby Light, who shot a 38 last week in a nine-hole match against Falmouth which decided the league championship. On Monday, Mr. Light will play in the state championships for the second year in a row. Last season, he placed 25th.
This year’s tournament will be held at Franklin Country Club in Wrentham.
“Last year gave me a good experience because it was really hard and all the players were really good,” he said. “Going in there this year with experience, I feel good about it. I feel like I can win, so it will be really cool to try.”
Mr. Light’s plan for Monday is straight forward: limit the double bogeys and put everything together at the right time.
“I just like the thrill of shooting a really good score and like fighting for it,” he said. “The mental battle is really fun, because it’s a challenging game.”
Both Mr. Light and Coach Smith praised the entire team for an outstanding season.
“We had really strong play and leadership out of our five seniors and then we had two sophomores and a junior that we could kind of lean on,” said Coach Smith. “We could get good scores from the bottom of our lineup, which can come in really clutch in matches.”
They also noted how much the team had developed over the years, citing its depth for much of this year’s success.
“When I was a freshman, we weren’t really deep,” said Mr. Light. “Working my way up to be the number one for the last two years and watching other kids that also made it that were freshman on the junior varsity team jump up and have a really big leap, it was just really cool to see everyone grow into the team and the young guys coming into their own.”