After six years of dominance over the state, the varsity boys golf team’s dreams of a seventh straight state championship weren’t realized. The Chaps fought throughout the entire tournament, but wound up shooting 14 over across the two days, a far cry from last year’s score of three under. 

The Chaps finished eighth out of 12 teams at the UIL boys 6A golf state championship on April 29-30 at White Wing Golf Club in Georgetown. Sophomore Sterling Hurd led the way, shooting three under and finishing tied for fourth place. 

“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys,” head coach Michael Rome said. “They’ve come in every day looking to get better. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for, is guys that want to get better, and pushing each other to be better, on and off the course. I’m just disappointed that I couldn’t send off our seniors with a better taste in their mouth.”

Hurd had one of his best tournaments of the year, and he continued his consistent play into the biggest stage. As the youngest player on the team, and one of the youngest in the tournament, he outplayed many upperclassmen. 

 “My distance control with irons has been great recently,” Hurd said. “My putting has been better recently as well. It got me to two under which isn’t exactly where I want to be, but I’ll take it in my first state tournament.”

Junior Adam Villanueva, who won state last year as a sophomore, had a very tough second round. After firing one over in the first round, he seemed within striking distance of a repeat. However, he shot three over in the second round, putting him at four over in the tournament. 

“It was just a tough tournament for everyone, including Adam,” Rome said. “That’s really all it is. We just didn’t make the putts. We hit the ball pretty well, we were in good spots and putts just didn’t fall.”

White Wing golf course was a tough draw for the Chaps’. Narrow fairways meant that they couldn’t play to their strengths, and hit huge drives. The course is a stark opposite from last year’s venue of Legacy golf club.

 “The course played really tough the last few days,” Hurd said. “When you miss the green here, which we did a few times, getting up and down gets really hard.”

The Chaps will look to come back next year under the leadership of Villanueva, Hurd, and incoming senior Whitt Bartlett. They take away a district, region, and area championship away from an up-and-down 2023-24 season. 

“It’s a learning experience,” Rome said. “We worked hard all year, but when we got to state, the putts just didn’t drop. Obviously, we wanted to continue that legacy and streak, but streaks are meant to be broken. We just need to go back to the drawing board next year and get back.”