(Photos provided courtesy of Bensalem golf)
By Ben Reese
LIMERICK — Bensalem had four golfers at the District One Golf Tournament on Monday at Turtle Creek Golf Course.
I’ll repeat that.
Bensalem had four golfers at the District One Golf Tournament.
That isn’t a misprint.
The Owls have had a resurgence of their golf program. And it is showing up in places where it is noticed.
Bensalem coach Jeff Schluchterer couldn’t remember it ever happening before.
“Since I’ve been doing this from 2010, it hasn’t happened,” he said. “When I started in 2010, we had three - two seniors and a freshman.
“All those years in between (2010 and 2022) there was no one (from Bensalem) at districts. We had usually one person at SOLs representing Bensalem.”
Wow, that is certainly a long drought. What has changed?
“Some of it I attribute to COVID because a lot of the kids got bored and started playing golf,” Schluchterer said.
The coach might be onto something.
“We all started playing freshman or sophomore year,” said Anthony Heisse. “We’ve been playing for four years now so we should be somewhat decent.”
“In the last year, a lot of us just decided to start golfing in our free time,” he said. “In the summer, we tried to play every day.”
Schluchterer also credited summer jobs for promoting the resurgence.
“A lot of them worked at Bensalem Country Club,” he said. “Six out of the eight seniors worked there, and they just played all the time so that really contributed to their progress.”
Some of the improvement has to do with the golfers just getting together because they wanted to.
“A lot of practice in the winter,” said Matt Kilner. “We all as a team practiced really hard.
“We all practiced as a team, so we got that team chemistry but all of us just helping and motivating each other pushed us forward to bring four of us to districts this year.”
Freshman Zac Devos chimed in also. He cited several areas that have helped.
“Just playing consistently,” Devos said. “Making sure to put ourselves in position to score good.
“Making sure to make good shots and good putts when (we) need them. There has always been good chemistry but, from the beginning of the season to now, it has gotten a lot better.”
Schluchterer gave some plaudits to one of his volunteer assistants known affectionately as Pop.
“Jack ‘Pop” Downey,” the Owls’ coach said. “He’s an 84-year-old who helps me and he helps with the swing a lot. He’s the grandfather of a former player who graduated in 2013. He’s been hanging around with us for 10 years.
“Our scores dropped dramatically. We never broke 200 all last year; this year we did it a couple times.”
It may not seem like much but, for the Owls, it is the end of a long dry spell.
- Log in to post comments
