GAME DAY

Ryan Saxe showed up to the first tee at Morgan Creek golf course with butterflies in his stomach. The course was in a terrible condition, with puddles of water on the fairways. It was a dreary day, cold, cloudy, and rainy — less than ideal conditions for golf. Saxe and the team were wearing their blue polos, blue hats, and black pants, drenched in the pouring rain. After a little bit of warming up, it was time for Saxe to head to the first tee and start the match. “I was definitely very nervous, but nerves are ok because I really wanted to do good, not just for me, but for my team as well,” he said. It was Saxe’s first ever match on a team where the score actually mattered. At that moment, Saxe wanted to make that best shot possible to launch his team to victory. The first hole was a “slight dogleg left;” the biggest danger was hitting the ball too far left and out of bounds. Saxe did exactly that. “I was pretty mad after I sliced it, actually I was extremely mad,” he said. Now as Saxe is nearing the end of his senior year, he looks back at that particular moment as a learning experience. “I’ve learned to take my driver out of my bag a lot less after that day and play golf holes safely. Sometimes playing safe and average golf is the best golf you will ever play,” he said.