The McLean Golf team teed off for the first match of the year one August afternoon against Herndon. They snatched a victory, and the season has only gone uphill from there. McLean had accumulated an impressive 4-1 record coming into their first tournament of the season, with aspirations to win it all.

On the morning of September 17, McLean Varsity Golf started their campaign in the Liberty District Tournament, which was held at Hidden Creek Country Club in Reston, VA.

Every team in the conference, such as Herndon, Washington Lee, and Langley, played in the two day tournament. 

On the first day, Langley led by a 36 strokes, with McLean in second place, and Yorktown in third being one stroke behind McLean.

Senior Jonathan Zhao played tremendously well, shooting 76 on the first day, and 71 on the second, with the par being 71. Cab Fooshe was also outstanding, scoring 78 on the first day. The lineup consisting of Johnathan Zhao, Drew Hecker, Emma Lee, Joshua Sul, and Cab Fooshe had a good mix of fresh talent and experience. The next day, substitutions were made, with Joshua Sul being replaced by Andy Chung. 

The second day, McLean didn’t get the score that they needed to win, and fell into third place. However, it was enough to secure a spot in the Northern Region tournament for the second consecutive year. 

The Region tourney was held on October 2nd and 3rd. McLean finished in fifth place. Unfortunately, this was not enough to take them to the state competition.

Langley brought home first place in the tournament, with Madison as runner up. Only the top two teams made it to the state level. As a result, Marshall, Yorktown, and McLean were eliminated.

McLean didn’t live up to the quality that their current 4-1 regular season record would suggest. They beat Yorktown earlier this season at Hidden Creek Country Club, and the team was disappointed to finish behind them at the region level.

“We played well in the district tournament, as well as in the region. Of course I am disappointed to finish in fifth place and not make it to states, but we worked hard and got better as a team and as individuals,” sophomore Will Scherer said. 

McLean finished ahead of Yorktown, Marshall, and Madison in the district tournament, but came up short against these same teams at the regional level. Perhaps the effort level from opposing teams rose with the competition, enabling them to place higher.

“We almost beat Yorktown and Marshall. The competition was more focused, and it was definitely a more challenging environment than districts,” sophomore Cab Fooshe said. 

McLean’s bad luck continued with Senior Jonathan Zhao losing out to Yorktown freshman Ben Newfield as an individual to go to states. This was a surprising upset as Zhao had the best score for McLean in both the district and region tournaments.

Overall, McLean did well to make it to the Northern Region tournament, and hopefully they will progress farther next year. 

“We have good talent on this team, and we will take this experience and learn from it as we progress as golf players,” Scherer said.