The San Benito High boys golf team is coming off one of its best seasons in program history, having advanced to the final round of the Central Coast Section Tournament.
The Haybalers lost several key pieces to that squad, but coach Reggie Synegal is hopeful this year’s team—relatively inexperienced compared to last year’s squad—can make dramatic strides of improvement as the season goes along.
“We’ve got some guys who can play,” Synegal said. “We lost a lot of guys, but we’re going to be OK. The guys are fighters and know what they need to do.”
The Balers have one elite player in sophomore Brad Sparrer, who was the No. 5 player in the lineup in 2014. However, Sparrer played countless hours in the offseason, and the results speak for themselves.
Sparrer, who shot a 79 to finish 49th overall in last year’s CCS Championships at the Rancho Cañada West Course in Carmel, shot an even-par 36 at Corral de Tierra Country Club in Salinas in a March 2 match.
Sparrer finished second overall out of 36 players, and he had another sterling performance while shooting a solid 3-over par 75 at Salinas’ Crazy Horse Ranch in the Viking Classic on Feb.23.
It’s no wonder Sparrer said he’s been happy with his performances through the first couple weeks of the season.
“I’ve been playing pretty good, but golf is a humbling game, and you can never feel too comfortable out there,” Sparrer said.
Sparrer plans on getting his driver’s license soon, which means more time for golf. Sparrer usually hitches a ride back home from practice from one of his teammates, but once he gets his license, he might have to be dragged off the golf course—seriously.
A voracious competitor with an equally intense work ethic, Sparrer said if it possible, he would use the headlights from his car to light up the course at night so he could put in extra hours on the practice range.
“Once I get my license, I can stay out here as long as I want,” he said. “That’ll be a lot of fun. If I could get some lights out there, I’d be good to practice for a couple of more hours.”
Sparrer, who will turn 16 at the end of the month, thinks and plays beyond his years. Perhaps the greatest example of his precocious ways lies in his preparation. Sparrer actually likes to preview a course before playing it; for example, Sparrer played Spring Hills Golf Course in Watsonville to get a sense of the layout before the team’s MBL tournament match there on March 12.
Even if Sparrer has played a course before, he’ll preview it again before a match just in case the course has been altered in any way.
“I want to see a course and how it’s playing,” he said. “Even if I’ve already played it before, this year the greens could be faster. I’m just looking for little stuff like that.”
Although Synegal knows what he’ll get from Sparrer on a match-by-match basis, he’s hoping for more consistency from the rest of the lineup, including Grant Bernosky, Kale Jacob, Tyler Schiller, Ricardo Garcia, Quinn Mendoza, Nick Wells and Josh Hoyte.
All of the aforementioned players are capable of shooting in the low 40s; however, they can also finish in the high 40s as well. The Balers’ objective is to limit the high 40s throughout the course of the season, which would put them in a strong position for a top-three league finish.
“We’ve got some guys who can hit it long, but we need all of them to manage their short game,” said Synegal, who counts Garcia as one of the team’s top players in terms of course management. “I feel like we have nine guys who can play solid varsity golf, and hopefully they compete with each other to make each other better.”
San Benito plays all of its home matches at San Juan Oaks, and Synegal expressed gratitude to the club and its director of golf, Manny Freitas, for providing an excellent atmosphere for his team to excel in.
Synegal also hopes Sparrer’s indefatigable work ethic will rub off on the rest of the team.
“Brad is typically the last one to leave practice,” Synegal said. “Guys have to know it takes hard work and practice if you want to keep improving in this game.”
