The Havre high golf season came to an end over the weekend as the MHSA State Class ‘A’ tournament wrapped up in Polson. New Media Broadcasters spoke with head coach Dennis Murphy, who deciphered the results for our listeners and said after reflection that it was a satisfactory end to a short sprint of a season.
“They shot pretty close to their handicaps for the weekend,” Murphy said. “This was the first state tournament for seven of the eight that attended.”
“There were obviously some nerves that you deal with that you don’t normally deal with during the regular season,” Murphy continued. “We played three days of 18 holes. Normally, we only do two days of 18 holes.”
“The length of the tournament can have a little bit of bearing on you towards the end,” Murphy said. “I know (the players) would’ve always like to have shot a little bit better, but that’s the name of golf. Enjoy the good shots and talk about the bad ones, too.”
Another set of high school golf outings has come and gone for coach Murphy, who steered the Blue Ponies in his second campaign. He took the time to praise the golfers who had exceptional seasons and said the teams bonded together and were able to establish their own consistencies as the seasons went along.
“Both our squads were pretty consistent this year,” Murphy said. “There (weren’t) any really big blow ups on either end, especially for the boys’s side. They were very consistent.”
“(For) the girls’, each week we had a goal on what we wanted to get as a team and as I talked to them, we had to help each other out if somebody was having a bad day and needed to come up with a little bit of a lower score,” Murphy continued. “The girls’ did that throughout the year. It was a little bit more of an up-and-down for them, but overall, pretty consistent as a team.”
“(The season was) very rewarding,” Murphy said. “(I’m) very proud of what they accomplished.”
