Sean Flanagan entered Thursday’s three-team golf match with Dixon and Freeport with zero varsity experience. However, that didn’t stop the Hub junior and first-year team member from making a solid debut during Rochelle’s season-opener at Fairways Golf Course.
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ROCHELLE — Sean Flanagan entered Thursday’s three-team golf match with Dixon and Freeport with zero varsity experience. However, that didn’t stop the Hub junior and first-year team member from making a solid debut during Rochelle’s season-opener at Fairways Golf Course.
The Hubs started only three varsity players on Thursday, but each player shot well below 60 strokes over nine holes. Sophomore Megan Thiravong led the way with 41 for the third-best overall match score, while sophomore Reese Kirk added 50 and Flanagan totaled 55. Freeport won the match with 161 and Dixon took second with 202. Rochelle forfeited to both teams at varsity to drop to 0-2 overall.
“My dad and I would play 18 holes every now and then when I was younger,” Flanagan said. “I’ve always loved to golf growing up, and I thought I would be able to help the team out this year. It felt good to be out there, and although I felt I could have done better, I didn’t think I played too bad. I feel like my middle game isn’t too bad, but I’d like to work on the greens a bit more.”
Kirk was another Hub golfer making his varsity debut on Thursday. The sophomore spent all of last season with the junior varsity team, and he said he was excited to earn his first taste of varsity action this year. With several young players on this year’s junior varsity team, Kirk will look to step up as a leader for the program’s newer players.
“It was exciting coming up to be a varsity player,” Kirk said. “I felt that my shots near the green and my putting were strong parts of my game. I’ve been trying to fix my swing from baseball and I’ve been trying to get it back to where it needs to be… I’m trying to be smarter when I play golf. Some of our freshmen are where I was last year, and coach [Glen Mehrings] encouraged me to help them get better.”
Sophomore Ben Ranken shot 59 to lead the Rochelle junior varsity team, which took second place with 250 while Freeport won with 203. The Hubs will return to action on Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 4 p.m. against Sycamore.