“So much of golf is not necessarily having really great holes, but minimizing really bad holes,” says Boys Varsity Golf Coach Jed Curtis. “There’s only so many strokes you can go lower: there’s an infinite number you can go higher.”

It was this very insight that enabled the team, who started the season off with a 311-325 loss in 18 holes to Oak Park and River Forest, to, just five days later, rebound and defeat Jones/Payton 163-176 in nine holes.

“I think we all just need to improve on our consistency, just in general, because some of us do really well in some tournaments but then we can blow up and do really poorly in some other ones,” says junior golfer Kieran Mavros. 

The need for the sort of consistency mentioned by Mavros was made clear in the Kits next dual, where they lost to Loyola 150-166 in nine holes. Last year, albeit with eighteen holes to play, the Ramblers proved to be no match for Evanston; the Wildkits picked up a 304-348 victory.

At the time of this writing, the Kits have accumulated a conference record of 1-3, with a win against Niles West, 161-170, and losses to Maine South, Glenbrook South and New Trier with scores of 150-163, 148-169 and 153-169 respectively.

“Our division’s obviously really difficult; we have one of the best divisions in Illinois,” Mavros explains, referring to the strength of Glenbrook North, New Trier and Glenbrook South. 

Coming off of the Wheeling Invitational on Sept. 18, boys golf will compete in the Central Suburban League Conference tournament on Sept. 22. They will look to improve upon their fifth-place finish from last year.

“We’re still in a situation where we’re trying to figure out who our players are going to be in the postseason, who’s going to step forward,” says Coach Curtis. “We’ve had strong showings from [juniors] Ryder Bellios and Jamie Young, and our seniors Sid [Mehrotra], Alex [Vasquez] and Jack McGaughy—really happy with how they’ve played this year.”

Even with Conference, Regionals, Sectionals and State all looming overhead though, there are still some non-postseason rounds of golf left to be played this season; besides the Wheeling Invite Sept. 18, a chunk of the team will also participate in the Mundelein Invite the same day, a dual against North Shore Country Day on Sept. 23 and the McDermand Invite in Lake Forest Sept. 25. 

 “Because there’s two months, there’s not a ton of tournaments. It’s kind of like you perform, or you don’t, and that makes the cut,” says Mavros regarding the postseason.

The IHSA Boys Golf season will officially conclude with State Finals Oct. 9 at The Den at Fox Creek Golf Course in Bloomington.