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Greenville senior Caleb Clements tees off on the eighth hole at the OK White jamboree hosted by East Grand Rapids at Kent Country Club on Wednesday afternoon. Clements shot a 47 for the Yellow Jackets in their fifth-place team finish. — DN Photo | Meghan Tripp
GRAND RAPIDS — The Greenville boys golf team is holding their ground against some of the best teams in the state this season.
The Yellow Jackets are taking each jamboree one shot at a time this season, hoping to be better than they were the day before. They traveled to Kent Country Club on Wednesday afternoon to compete in another OK White jamboree, this time hosted by East Grand Rapids.
Strong winds made for a tricky day on the course, making strategy and concentration that much more important. The Jackets made do with the conditions and secured themselves a season-best fifth place finish with a 177.
Head coach Jason Bialochowski said they entered the contest approaching every hole one shot at a time.
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“You can only take it one shot at a time,” Bialochowski said. “I have to remind them to just hit their shots, go onto the next one and then add them up when you’re done. That’s really our mindset. It’s the best approach you can have and just go from there.”
The Jackets have officially reached the middle point in the season. As the end of the season comes to fruition, their drive to excel increases. Bialochowski believes the motivation behind it has been years in the making.
“These guys have been driven for the last couple of years,” Bialochowski said. “Last year, we had so much success. They came in this year with a little added pressure, but they just always have that drive to get better and build upon what they have.”
Junior Sutton Schroeder, who’s also a two-time individual state qualifier, led the Yellow Jackets for the day with a 40, finishing fifth overall individually. He started the afternoon strong by sinking a birdie on a par five, his first hole of the day. From there, he parred four additional holes and bogeyed the other four. He said his putting skills came to his advantage.
“I thought I putted really well today,” Schroeder said. “I just love competing in general. I love the nervous feeling before a shot and knowing that it’s going to be a good shot. That definitely gets me going.”
Senior Liam Dailey was close behind, shooting a 43 for the day. Similar to Schroeder, he bogeyed four and parred four heading into his final hole of the day, where he birdied a par three. Dailey finished in a four-way tie with Caden Westers of Byron Center and Trevor Mead and Ben Gaskin of Lowell.
Senior Caleb Clements and freshman Corbin Perrien each shot a 47 for the day. Clements birdied his second hole of the day on a par five, and Perrien parred a par five on his third hole. The two finished in a three-way tie for 25th place with Nolan Timmer of Forest Hills Central.
Clements believes having a positive attitude will translate to positive results on the course.
“We just have to go out there and hit the best shots we can,” Clements said. “When we get those tough breaks, we just have to keep grinding.”Senior Benjamin Hutchinson finished the afternoon with a 58 and junior Aiden Kramer rounded out the team with a 59. Based on their scores, the Jackets claim cleaning up the little things will improve their game going forward.
“We just have to work off the tee and get the good shots,” Schroeder said. “We also have to hit the greens better. We have to build that confidence off the good shots and not focus on the bad shots.”
“We really try and focus on our short game,” Bialochowski said. “If that’s there, then it doesn’t really matter what else we do.”
The OK White is a stacked conference when it comes to boys golf with plenty of returning team and individual state qualifiers thrown into the mix. Bialochowski claims playing against some of those teams is beneficial for them in the long run.
“It’s good for us to see the best players in the state because we’re seeing the best every single day,” Bialochowski said. “We’ve been seeing them for so long, we can only get better playing against those teams. Our mindset isn’t so much playing against them, but rather bettering ourselves as a whole together.”
With conference championships and the postseason rapidly approaching, the Jackets look to finish these last couple of weeks as strong as possible. Bialochowski looks forward to finishing the season the best they can while also looking ahead at the future of the Greenville boys golf program.
“I think the seniors have really set the tone,” Bialochowski said. “They’ve really worked hard and that kind of feeds into everyone else. I mean, the numbers show it. We had 34 kids go out this year, and we have some eighth graders coming in as well. I think that was a big bonus for us in getting things turned around and being so successful. We just try to take it day by day, event by event and just be better tomorrow.”
