North golf stares down state tournament

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, April 5, 2006

PORT LUDLOW — To get in a practice round or a match, the North Kitsap golf team must travel north on State Route 3, over the Hood Canal Bridge, through the woods on a windy road before finally arriving at the Port Ludlow Country Club 20 miles later.

But the trip is well worth it, according to early season results.

“This match in particular … a 76-74 score is phenomenal,” head coach Tom Harney said of a recent Viking match with the Gig Harbor Tides. “It would’ve been really nice to knock them off this time but I’m thrilled that we scored 74.”

Harney is thrilled but not surprised, even though the 76-74 point total marked a new record for a high school nine-hole match on the course. The record is one result of how experience pays off.

North’s top-four golfers are all returning from last year in which North collected a 5-2 Narrows League record. This year, the crew has helped lead the Vikings to a 2-1 start.

“We’re definitely better this year,” said sophomore Joey Duwe, who led the team against Gig with a one-under round of 35. “We just need to keep on practicing and working on putting, that’s one of the most important things.”

Duwe and his brother Stephen, along with David Dobson and Evan Faulk, make up the top-four spots for the Vikings while Nick Bartow and first-year player Robby Slattery are No. 5 and 6.

One of the most impressive aspects about the Gig Harbor match March 28 was that each player played well, Harney said, noting that Slattery put together his best round yet with a score of 42, collecting 12 points for the Viking cause.

“Gig returns four kids from state last year … We’re a good team to have done this well,” Harney said, placing the 2006 team in the upper ranks of all the squads he has coached in 19 years at North.

At the root of good teams are good relationships which promote teamwork. And though golf is a typically individual sport, there is more to it than each member individually striving for their best.

“It’s not just a team sport, it’s real friendship stuff,” Slattery said, noting the help he has been getting on all facets of the game from his new teammates.

“It is just fun to compete,” Harney said. “And you have to compete well to be able to beat each other and (the team) loves to compete and beat each other.”

That friendly competition has created a continuous improvement atmosphere at practice which should foster betterment over the course of the season.

The team’s immediate goal is to continue to improve in order to hopefully achieve its long-term goal, which is to send its top-four to the state tournament, Joey Duwe said.

“Work on consistency, find the little things that you can improve on,” Harney said as pieces of improvement, adding that the “short game can always get better. We’ll be working on that over Spring Break.”

Currently, practice is the only action the team is seeing as matches have ceased for Spring Break. Following the hiatus, the Vikings will be back in action with 18-hole matches the rest of the way.

The Vikings will resume match play when they travel to Gold Mountain, taking on Bremerton starting at 2:45 p.m. April 13. Then they will be back at Port Ludlow hosting South Kitsap at 2:45 p.m. April 20.

After the two-point loss to the Tides March 28, any NK hopes for a league title rest on the Vikings’ ability to win out the rest of the season.