The girl’s golf team, in year two, is currently the best golf team in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Ocean Division. They finished their season 12-0 and are heading to the PAL playoffs this Tuesday.
Their goal this season was to move up to the more competitive Bay Division. The team is made up of Ava Chotai, Katelyn Fung, Anjali Ulrich, Sierra Bryant, Lily Gustafson, Chase Hetherington, Manon Lenoir, Kiaana Parikh, and coached by Chris Dawkins.
Their PALs match is this Tuesday, October 18 at Popular Creek in San Mateo, and it will be a 3-way match. They have put a lot of effort and time into getting into the playoffs.
“Our whole entire team put a lot of effort in during the offseason last year,” Ava Chotai said. “Since it was our first season, we had a lot of new girls coming in, including myself, and we were able to go to lessons. We had six girls that signed up for lessons with Mike, our coach so we got a strong lineup, which I think is what helped us advance this season.”
The team has recruited some new members and expanded to 9 players instead of their previous 6 players. Since their first year of starting, the girl’s golf team’s new members’ improvement throughout the season has propelled them to the number one team in the PAL Ocean Division.
“I think we have three new players this season,” Chotai said. “We have Lillian [Gustafson], Chase [Hetherington], and Manon [Lenoir]. They all have improved drastically throughout the season, so it’s been really great.”
This team’s players have been part of the golfing community for a while. Chotai has been playing golf since a young age and Anjali Ulrich, the third player on the roster has been playing for various years as well.
“I’ve been playing on and off since I was about like seven,” Chotai said. “But I’ve really picked it up seriously this past year.”
The team wouldn’t be as good as it is now without practicing individually, while also working as a team. As they say, practice makes perfect.
“I play golf during the season about five times a week, and then offseason like four three times a week,” Chotai said.
Their official season has come to an end, and the girl’s golf team PAL playoffs begin this Tuesday they will be playing the top 2 teams in the Bay Division; Carlmont and Hillsdale.
“We have PALs on Tuesday for our team,” Chotai said. “We’re hoping to do really well and we’ll be playing against the top 2 in the Bay Division [Carlmont and Hillsdale]. We’ve all been working really hard these past couple of weeks, and hopefully, it’ll go really well.”
