One trip to TopGolf, and a desire to try new things for her senior year, led Savannah Casados to the Española Valley High School golf team. She brought her softball teammate Destiny Martinez, thinking it could be similar in the swing.
“But it is the most expensive sport,” Casados said. “It’s very fun, though.”
Española hosted the Sundevil Invite on Monday at the picturesque Black Mesa Golf Club, on an overcast day with a fair share of rain. Los Alamos, Santa Fe Indian School and Gallup all joined the tournament. Española’s Ben Maynes won the tournament on the boys side with a score of 88.
“It’s amazing,” said Española coach Wilbert Romero. “It’s amazing to see, just getting everybody involved in Northern New Mexico in golf, especially here in Española, has been awesome.”
Romero took over as the golf team’s coach for the 2022-23 season, after the team needed a coach.
After joining the team, Romero started a recruiting drive, with signs posted around the school, and advertising potential scholarships. After dwindling in recent years, Española already has 12 players active on the team, many of whom are playing for the first time in their lives.
Adam Gonzales finished 11th in the tournament with a 130 score, and James Martinez was 12th. Daniel Purdy and Dominic Sandoval were right behind. On the girls side, Sophia Atencio was the best Sundevil, with a 126 for a sixth-place finish. Casados was eighth at 138, followed closely by Vanessa Martinez, Nuvia Cassillas, Jaclynne Martinez, and Destiny Martinez.
For players brand new to golf, getting to the hole on less than the maximum eight strokes (10 on a par five) is a success. And they found just how tiring a seven-hour round on the course can be.
“Very tiring at times,” Casados said. “This is one of the hardest courses in our state. So, it’s very much different from playing in Los Alamos, because it was all straight-forward.”
Throughout the day, everyone helped everyone else learn the course and the game, players and coaches alike.
Players like Casados have felt major improvements from when they started the year, and even from the start to the end of the day at Black Mesa, even if the challenging course might not be the best place for a beginner to learn.
“The goal, right now, is just to progress and learn the game, and get ready for the spring season,” Romero said. “But just give the kids a love of the game.”