On April 8, the UHS Boys’ Golf team defeated the Sage Hill Lightnings 185-194 at Strawberry Farms in a close match. After each competitor completed the nine-hole course, scores were determined by adding the five lowest scores from each team.

 Still early in the season, the Trojans recognized that preparation was key to achieving their goals.

“Our team practices almost every day, and they have put a great amount of effort towards improving their game, which showed itself in our win against Sage,” sophomore Woorin Ninh said.

Playing on their home course, the Trojans got off to a strong start, with the first group of golfers winning by a wide margin. The group was led by junior Connor Chan, who secured birdies on holes four, six, and seven and junior Jerry Zhu, who finished with the lowest score of the match.

However, the Lightnings began to pick up momentum midway through and slowly clawed away at the Trojans’ lead. As the final set of golfers teed off, the Lightnings attempted to pull ahead, but the Trojans stayed strong and held their lead until the end.

“My player partner, sophomore Max Wang, and I got off to a slow start though we quickly picked up the pace and played significantly better near the end of the round,” Ninh said. “Our performance improved as soon as we took our time to relax during high-pressure moments.”

With the season underway, the Trojans hope to use the win as a stepping stone towards becoming league champions and advancing to CIF. While the Trojans have excellent team chemistry and golf experience, players also know what they need to sharpen moving forward.

“Consistency is definitely something that we could all improve on,” Chan said. “So just trying to get a little bit better than the day before is something we are working on.”

The Trojans will play their next game away on May 15 against the Los Serranos Diamondbacks.