TRIMONT – The Martin County West Mavericks golf team is ready to go this year.

After graduating only one golfer last season, the team returns a lot of varsity experience while adding new talent to the roster.

“I think this year, just focusing on … kind of back to the groundwork, the basics, working backwards,” said MCW head coach Jordan Neduzak. “In golf we’ll say green back to tee-box and how to set ourselves up for success. I know the hard part with changing the mentality of a teenage high school golfer. ‘Hey, I want to hit the ball 300 yards, OK?’ ‘What are we going to do with that 300-yard drive?’ And that doesn’t always happen. So just kind of working backwards, where do we want to approach the green, where do we want to have that second shot in the fairway, hopefully. Then, our tee shot, maybe it’s not hitting a driver every time, but it’s hitting a 5-, 6-, and 7-iron to put ourselves in a better spot.”

As the golfers’ development process continues, the focus of the new additions is the mental side of the game.

“I have some veteran golfers who eat, sleep, and breathe golf,” said Neduzak. “Then I have some kids who are just picking it up for the first time. But I think the combination of those two kids, the same thing goes back to the mindset of golf, one staying positive with golf because it’s a frustrating sport as is, but then just really thinking the game of golf too and thinking how they can set themselves up for the best success.”

The loss of three-time state golfer Hunter Schmidt to graduation last year is definitely a blow to the Mavericks’ scorecard, but the coaching staff likes how the roster is shaping up this year.

“I think our averages this year with kind of our roster that we’ll have should level out to hopefully be a little lower scoring average than last year.”

With golf blurring the lines between attitude and ability, the mental side of the game is a focus of the Mavericks.

“Truthfully that’s the fine line between winning and losing for some of those kids is that

attitude and that mindset part of golf,” said Neduzak. “If you’re able to just stay focused and you’re able to push a bad shot aside and just focus on that next shot, which is usually the most

important shot in golf, you’re going to find more success, because those really skilled ability golfers that are competing against you, they’re going to make those mistakes. But if you’re able to coincide with the mental side and the attitude side of things, you are going to be successful as a high school golfer.”

The Mavericks host Blue Earth for their next meet at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.