Plum boys golf eyes next step

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, August 14, 2017 | 11:00 PM

The Plum boys golf team will look to continue to develop its game after losing only one contributor to graduation.

This season the Mustangs will be led by a pair of girls — senior Shelby Schumaker and junior Kelsi Zik — as well as junior Matt Carroll. The Mustangs lost Marissa Lynch due to graduation.

Plum also will hope for strong contributions from junior Bryce Lynch and sophomores Dylan Tarquinio and Dan Baranowski, who started about 80 percent of the matches last season.

Coach Brian Dunaway said he was excited to see who else could figure into the mix for the Mustangs.

“We are going to be young,” he said. “I'm going to get some new faces so I'm anxious to see what they are able to do.”

Dunaway believes the Mustangs need to focus on their short game in team matches.

“Inside 100 yards, I saw a lot of shots get thrown away. Course management needs to get better, but I would say the biggest thing I saw was that we need to improve from 100 yards in,” he said.

“Our scores would have dropped anywhere from 10 to 20 shots. We would start shooting in the low 200s, which would make us competitive. We were closer to 230 or 235, but a lot of their shots were within that range.”

In addition to team matches, Shumaker and Zik will be in contention for the one available spot for a girls individual qualifier.

Dunaway said he liked the progress of Carroll last season as he shot his best round for the Mustangs in a narrow victory over Penn Hills.

“He was in the last group and played one of his best rounds. It didn't look like we were going to pull that one out, but he came through,” Dunaway said.

Shumaker, Zik and Carroll will look to draw from their experiences at the Section 4-3A qualifiers a season ago.

Shumaker was entered into the girls qualifier after winning the spot through an on-course competition.

Plum will again compete in Section 4-3A, which is led by defending WPIAL Class AAA team champion Central Catholic, as well as Fox Chapel, Franklin Regional, Gateway, Penn Hills and Woodland Hills.

“I'm just hoping they continue to grow and work on their game,” Dunaway said. “I hope they show improvement throughout the season. I hope we improve on last year's record.

“I have to keep things in perspective, but I hope we just get better. An improvement would be losing a couple strokes off their average and that will help with our statistics. That's all I can ask for.”

The Mustangs will tee off their season against Fox Chapel at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Field Club.

Plum then will face Central Catholic at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Oakmont Country Club and Franklin Regional at 3 p.m. Thursday at Meadowink Golf Course to close the opening week of the season.

Andrew John is freelance writer.

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