Young but talented Mavs hit the course

MOSES LAKE — It’s a young group of Mavericks on the links this year.

“We have one senior is all,” said Terry Melbye, the Moses Lake High School boys golf coach. “We have one senior; all the rest of them are freshmen, juniors and a couple of sophomores.”

“I’ve got two returning seniors,” said girls coach Lonny Brown. “Decent players, but great kids, Addison Nighswonger and Jayda Redford. They’re good leaders. I’ve got a couple of other returners from last year … I've got a sophomore, Lili Roylance, and then a junior, Rhylee Humphrey. So those top four players right there, we took second last year and so our expectations are good this year. We'll see if we can do it again.”

Two players who went to state last year are back this year, Melbye said, one of whom, a sophomore, shoots under par pretty consistently. 

“Mason Bradford, he’s our number one player,” Melbye said. “He’s been working hard on his game even from last year, and he was our number one player then too. He’s dropped five, six strokes on a round pretty easily … He'll be on his tee box and he can drive it to the green. He’s got a really good short game and he’s a good chipper. So yeah, he’s got the potential.”

“We look really strong as a team right now,” said junior Isaiah Patino. “I think we can go really far. Individually, I feel good, feel confident in my swing.”

“We focus on the short game, like we do a lot of the 40, 50 yards in, pitching, chipping, putting. That's where the scoring is. ... If you can eliminate some mistakes around the green your scores definitely can be better. And that's really what we focus on.”

“This is a great bunch of kids,” Melbye said. “I couldn’t have hand-picked them any better.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.

    Ella Palmer, right, and Hayley Hardebeck work on their drive game at Moses Lake Golf & Country Club Tuesday.