The girls’ golf team started off their season with a 172-184 stroke victory against the Drake Pirates on Thursday, Aug. 28.

  Senior Mia Poynor had the top score of the day at 36 and led the team of twelve alongside senior Rachel Yenofsky. This year, the team looks to improve from a fourth place MCAL finish and an NCS appearance from Poynor.

Despite losing an experienced player in Redwood graduate Olivia Poletti, the team makes up for her with ten returning players and new members sophomore Grace Garcia and junior Kendra Loo.

    “Grace and Kendra, they’re both really good leaders and they’re very outspoken,” Poynor said. “When they hit a bad shot it doesn’t faze them.”

Garcia was unable to play last year because of a torn ACL. Even though this is her first year playing golf for Redwood, she does not lack experience.

    “I’ve been playing since I was six years old. My dad played tennis and I didn’t really like it, so I tried out golf instead.” Garcia said.

Garcia said that she and her father set up a golf grass mat and a net in her backyard for her to use to practice. When she was about eight years old, she began playing in tournaments individually.

   On Thursday’s match against Drake, Garcia scored a 45, just three strokes above the Pirates’ leading golfer, freshman Kylie Rollins.

Along with the addition of Garcia, the team also benefits from a new coach, Joe Corby, who has a more structured style of coaching than the team normally has.

    “He’s much more organized and strict,” said Poynor. “Last year we only had practices three days a week for about an hour and a half. Now we practice everyday, except Friday, for at least two hours.”

This season the team wants to focus on personal improvement, rather than scores and winning.

“I personally just want to enjoy the game. I’ve played golf for a long time and used to just worry about my scores. There is a part of golf that you are self conscious about getting bad scores,” Poynor said. “But it is a really good community, no one judges you about your skill level and just wants to help you improve.”

Corby said that he has tried to encourage the team to improve.

“We go out on the range and play a bit everyday. I’m trying to get a little competitive fire underneath them so they will strive to do better each time out,” Corby said.

The team’s toughest competitor is the reigning MCAL champions Justin Siena who played undefeated last year.  The Braves return a three time MCAL player of the year, along with six other golfers from their championship team.

The Giants also face competition from the second place San Marin team and third place Tamalpais team, both of which are benefitted by returning key players from last year.

The girls’ golf team’s next match takes place today, September 11, at 3:30 p.m. at Indian Valley against the San Marin Broncos.