On Oct. 9, the boys’ varsity golf team placed 10th in sectionals, headlined by junior Aidan Lafferty’s fitfth place finish.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids that are doing really well,” head coach Anthony Calderone said. “They’re all golfers and we’ve tried to push the idea of being a golfer instead of someone who plays golf. They put time in the offseason, they work and train at their game, and they get time on the course. It’s kind of shown over the last few years that the depth of our team has gotten better. There is a lot more competition.”

Lafferty scored a 69 on the 18-hole course en route to being named regional champion.

“[Aidan] is an individual that’s been playing since he was three, four, five years old,” Calderone said. “He does a lot of traveling around the country for national tournaments and brings some experience coming into his game. He definitely fits the golfer brand for sure.”

Golf is viewed mostly as an individual sport, but Calderone thinks the team does a good job of making it a team sport.

“We’ve been pushing a lot of working together, pushing each other, and building a competitive atmosphere where they don’t settle for the level of play that they’re at,” Calderone said. “They do what it takes to get to the next level, and you get a guy like Aidan, and you can see what the game really can be played like.”

With Hinsdale Central having won the last 5 state titles, the team believes that Lafferty and his score could be a big factor in their placing at sectionals.

“The amount of skill that it would take to shoot the type of scores that he scores, and the amount of work that it takes to do that,” Calderone said. “I think opens the eyes of some of the other guys that say that they didn’t think it’d be that hard to do that.”

Lafferty, who also shot a 72 and is advancing to state, describes the team as a very tight-knit group, always grinding to make each other better, in spite of golf being a largely individual sport.

“For me, I’m just trying to put up the best number I can, and helping the guys with course management or helping with shot selection,” Laffferty said. “I just like to take it one shot at a time.”

Setting a big goal, Lafferty wants to eventually play on tour sometime in his life.

“I can’t see my life without golf, but right now I’m just trying to play the best I can in order to get on college coaches’ radars,” Lafferty said.

Lafferty tries to focus on his accuracy more than his power, drawing from professionals such as Justin Rose.

“He’s very accurate off the tee, they might not kill the ball, but he’s a great short game player,” Lafferty said. “It’s a very dialed in controlled aspect of the game.”

Both senior Olivia Weaver and sophomore Lauren Schenk qualified for sectionals with scores of 91, but did not place in sectionals.

“Golf is a really mental sport. Having a positive mindset makes a huge difference.,” Weaver said. “In golf, if you’re someone who dwells on bad shots, you’re going to continue to hit bad shots. I think that’s true in life in general.”