Submitted photo
Trinity seniors Preston Kovener, Kade Hill, Caleb Williams and Jacob Sabotin pose for a picture after picking up a win over Paoli, South Central and West Washington Tuesday night. The Cougars shot a 177 and the four seniors shot some of their best scores of the season.
Submitted photo
By Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
South Central welcomed three other teams to Chariot Run Golf Course on Tuesday, and Trinity Lutheran had the best day out on the links, getting a win with a team score of 177.
Paoli was second with 198, South Central third at 218 and West Washington fourth at 237.
The Cougars trotted out their four seniors, and they delivered.
Jacob Sabotin was the medalist of the match with a season-best round of 36. Kade Hill also had a season-best round of 43, and Preston Kovener and Caleb Williams both shot a 49.
“Golf is such a mental game,” head coach Doug Sabotin said. “If you think about men who are graduating in two weeks, are thinking about college, trying to get jobs over the summer, maybe have girlfriends, they’re thinking about their grades; there’s just tons of distraction this time of year. We focus a lot on daily drills and trying to make sure that repetition is in place.”
Coach Sabotin believes chipping and putting are the most important aspects of golf, so his team spends a lot of time on that during the week. Another big key has nothing to do with skill, but more to do with mentality.
As the season winds down, the Cougars are trying to focus on just having fun.
“The key difference over the last week and a half is we have just celebrated the attitude of let’s just have fun these last couple weeks,” Sabotin said. “Enjoy the fact we’re out on a golf course in May. We’re just going to have fun. When you have that approach, there’s a better chance good things are going to happen.”
And good things happened to Trinity’s seniors on Tuesday.
“The boys were loose, they were relaxed, they were having fun,” Sabotin said. “That really more than anything else was what I saw that was different yesterday.”
Another important key Sabotin saw Tuesday were his players staying in the moment. What he means is whatever happened with your last shot, the next one is the most important.
“You have to be in the moment,” Sabotin said. “You’re gonna have some good shots, you’re gonna have some bad shots, but the most important swing is this one. I’ve been preaching to the boys, and I think Kade and Jacob did an excellent job of this Tuesday, was staying in the moment. They didn’t worry about the last shot was or what the next hole was going to be bringing, they really focused in on the moment.”
Progress and improvement is something all athletes want to see over a course of a season, and that’s exactly what Trinity has seen out of its four seniors.
“Same things apply to Preston and Caleb,” Sabotin said. “Golf is a relative game. A couple weeks ago, Preston and Caleb were maybe shooting a 55 or 56, and this week they shot a 49. Seven or eight strokes better. When you think about how relative it is, all the boys this week did a fantastic job of doing the things we’ve been talking about.”
Trinity has two matches left before the sectional. The Cougars will be at the Connersville Invite this Saturday, and then at Greenwood Christian Academy on Tuesday before sectionals in June.