By Carson Hall
Unlike team sports, you’re the only person to blame when it comes to golf. Both success and failure rest solely on your shoulders, physically and mentally.
Matt Boyle is playing his third year of competitive golf this spring. Boyle came to Delta High School his freshman year from New Jersey and was told in advance by his parents that he would have to play a sport.
“I decided I would play golf since I had recently got clubs from DICK’S Sporting Goods a few years ago for free,” Boyle said. “So I figured since I already had clubs I might as well just try it out and see how it goes.”
In the beginning, he didn’t start out playing golf very competitively. Boyle progressed over the years and fell in love with the game, constantly training to make himself better.
“I go to the driving range in the summer, probably two to three times a week and then I play with or I just play by myself like twice a week,” Boyle said.
He said sophomore year was a big stepping stone for him as he improved a surprising amount. Boyle started playing with the top five golfers on the team for matches.
“I played with him when I was a sophomore and he was a freshman,” teammate Cooper Bratton said. “Now he has grown way taller than before, and he can hit irons further than I can hit hybrids and woods.”
Now in his third year, Boyle was named the number one golfer on the team after improving so much in such a short period of time.
However that isn’t the only big change that happened to Boyle.
“Matt has most improved in his attention to solid contact and his ball position is spot on,” assistant coach Carl Bratton said. “He’s grown about a foot since his freshman year so the potential for swing issues is pretty high. He’s worked very hard to limit those issues by playing through them.”
Someone that Boyle really looks up to when it comes to golf is his great grandma. She loved the sport and always loved to play.
She was another reason why he decided to start playing golf, he said.
Starting out his freshman year Boyle was 5-foot-9, but going into sophomore year he spiked all the way to 6-foot-2. He just can’t stop growing as he is now 6-foot-5 and has had to adapt to those changes every single year.
Boyle said he averages a 290-yard drive. For comparison, the average drive for a PGA Tour golfer is about 300 yards. His dream is to work his way up in the leagues and eventually play on the PGA Tour, he said.
“I believe Matt will be given an opportunity to play at the next level (college golf) should he choose to,” head coach David Bratton said. “There are many good programs in the area that would benefit from having him play on their team.”
For 9 holes he averages 39 strokes, and for 18 holes he averages 80 strokes, he said.
His best on 18 was a 75 at Prairie View in Carmel, Ind. This course is where they hold the IHSAA state championship. His best on 9 was 1 under par at Albany Golf Course.
Although he averages an extremely long drive for a junior, his driver isn’t his favorite club. That would be his pitching wedge.
“It’s just one of the clubs I have to use the most, especially with the courses that we play on,” Boyle said. “I just tend to hit that club a lot better than any of my other clubs.”
What really sets Boyle apart from all the other golfers on the team is how much further he hits than anyone else. If he hits it well he’ll have short numbers to the green to help him win, he said.
“For any player to excel at golf the little things matter, and this is especially true around the greens,” David Bratton said. “Matt is able to score lower than his teammates because of his ability to not lose strokes when chipping and putting.”
Boyle’s goals for this season are to get a scoring average of under 80 in tournaments as well as to win sectionals and county.
County was held at the Muncie Elks golf course Saturday, May 3. Delta faced off against Yorktown, Wapahani, Cowan, Daleville, and Wes-Del.
Delta’s top five boys placed second as a team. Boyle placed third overall with an 84, which was six strokes behind the medalist.
The golf team has three matches and four tournaments left in the season. Boyle has his mind set on one thing: bringing home that sectional title.
