As Nick Laub positions his feet in the grass and prepares for his first swing of the match, teammates, competitors, and coaches all gaze at him silently. With a loud smack, he swings his driver through the air and hits the ball off the tee. The game has started.

Junior co-captain Laub, who has played golf since he was young, joined the varsity boys’ golf team his freshman year and said that this year has been a very different experience than past years.

“The last couple years, we’ve had guys who are so good that it’s just been easy,” Laub said. “I know that sounds weird, but some of them are playing in college right now. We would go out and practice and it would be fun and kind of do-your-own-thing, but this year we’re really trying to get prepared for the championship.”

Coach Barry Briggs said that the team is looking to play at the MCAL tournament on April 27.

“We have a goal, and that is to at least be above 500, in other words, to win as many matches as we lose this year. We are working very hard to do that, and we want to represent Redwood once again in the MCAL this year,” Briggs said.

As of press time, the team has a 7-7 season record. Last year, the team held a 16-2 record.

Senior co-captain Yoshio Boris also mentioned the increased level of competition the team has faced this season.

“Right now we are seven and seven, and we’ve lost of lot of close matches, so it’s been tough,” Boris said. “We’ve never even thought of having trouble getting to the [MCAL] tournament, but this year we are kind of sweating bullets now.”

Laub said that the team is struggling to be keep up their winning streak from previous years.

“There are ten teams in MCAL, and we’ve won the last four years,” Laub said. “My brother [Chris Laub’s] freshman year, he came along with a guy named Jon Shaw and Alex Gotz and they were called ‘The Trio.’ They won that year, and since then they were captains until they graduated.”

Briggs said that he has enjoyed rebuilding the program this year, even though the team lost many talented seniors who graduated last year. Briggs served as assistant coach last year and was promoted to head coach this season.

“[The seniors] helped with the MCALS for four years, and when you use that kind of talent, it’s a little difficult to replace them. We were very fortunate in that we had some returning players who were quite talented,” Briggs said.

Briggs said that senior Matt Cinelli has been a top scorer this year for the team.

“[Cinelli] has been extremely good this year. He is our lowest stroke average – he’s averaging around 40 – so he’s been very strong,” Briggs said.

According to Briggs, co-captains Laub and Boris have been performing very well this season too. Briggs said that Cinelli, Laub, and Boris were a great foundation for returning players to build on.

“Then two other seniors who had not played with us before, Nathaniel Cooney and Sander French, also joined this year, and filled out the roster,” Briggs added.

Cooney began playing golf competitively this season, and has improved quickly, competing in the starting six lineup in the past few matches.

Freshmen Payton Glenn and Carson Gilley and sophomore Max Fennema also joined the team this year as the three underclassmen represented.

“We’ve got nine players on the roster, and it is different in the sense that a lot of these players have not had a lot of match time or tournament time, so we are trying to get them into matches and we are trying to get them more experience,” Briggs said.

Briggs also said that the players are all improving every week.

“I didn’t have to teach a lot to the kids last year because they were pretty solid players, but I have two assistant coaches who are both professionals,” Briggs said. “They’ve gotten the chance to really help the kids a tremendous amount with their golf swings, and now that they are getting tournament time they are improving and playing quite well.”

According to Laub, practices are also structured differently this year because of a new coach and players with less experience.

“We are competing, and I would say we are top three this year, but Branson is really good and it’s going to be hard to top them. We have a lot more focus practices as a result,” Laub said.

Senior Nathaniel Cooney said that a typical practice consists of hitting balls at the driving range for nearly an hour and then competing amongst themselves on the course.

Additionally, Boris said that the team practices at different courses depending on where their next match will be held. However, he said the team mainly practices at the Meadow Club course in Fairfax and the San Geronimo course.

Briggs also said that he has been teaching the new players the fundamentals of the sport, as well as teaching with videos to guide players.

Laub said that this year’s team has a different feel.

“Me, [Boris], and Cinelli have experience and everyone else is kind of new,” Laub said. “[Zhang] had been on the team, but he hadn’t gotten a lot of matches in, so it’s really weird to see new guys playing. It’s cool, and it’s fun to play with them at practice.”