Area golf teams hope they can put it all together for conference tourney

The Blue Springs South and Blue Springs boys golf teams have had completely different seasons so far this year, and it can be summed up with one word: consistency.

Simply put, the Jaguars have had it and the Wildcats haven’t.

Both teams will try and put it all together Monday at Adams Pointe Golf Club as they play for the Suburban Big Six Conference championship.

“We’ve been very, very inconsistent,” Blue Springs senior Kyle Finley said. “We’re making progress. Our scores have been getting lower all year. We keep getting better.”

Blue Springs South is one of the more experienced teams in the area with J.P. Derksen and Blake Windsor leading the way. The Jaguars have claimed three 18-hole tournament titles already this season.

The course should be a fairly familiar one for both schools, even though it’s not the home course for either team.

“It’s one of my favorite courses in Kansas City,” Finley said. “It’s going to be tough regardless. We have to keep it in the fairway – fairways and greens.”

The thing that has hurt the Wildcats the most this season, what head coach Tom Round has harped on consistently, has been the team’s inability to avoid the big number on a hole.

A couple of bad holes can turn a possible round that was headed for the lower 40’s up to the mid- or upper-40’s quickly.

Even worse, one bad hole can lead to another.

“The key to any good golfer is to be able to stay in the moment,” Round said. “They have to take each hole and each shot as it comes. Is there a mental aspect? Absolutely. I don’t know if we’ve overcome that hurdle yet.

“Your intuition is to get down on yourself and let it affect you one more time.”

The team that’s able to do avoid that best Monday may have the best chance to bring home a conference title.

While anything can happen and anyone can get hot on a given day, South and Lee’s Summit North appear to be the favorites.

The Wildcats will do everything they can to throw their name into the mix as well.

“I think we can be competitive,” Round said. “Can we win it? That might be a stretch. Everyone has to play up to their potential one time and we’ll see where that gets us.”

Added Finley, “The talent is there. If we shoot as well as we should we have a shot. It’s definitely possible.”