Placing second at their first meet of the year, La Salle’s varsity boys golf team has officially kicked off their 2026 season.

Despite taking on a new coach this year — coach Jeff Nielson — the team has remained decently stable coming into the new year, with only one senior athlete graduating last year, according to varsity golfer and junior Matthew Martin.

However, some changes have been made to the teams structure, with them taking on several new freshman varsity athletes. According to Martin, the team is looking good moving into the season.

“I think the team’s solid, we’re a really … well rounded team,” he said. “I think we definitely have some room for improvement. But I think it could be a good season.”

With the onboarding of a new coach, practices have shifted slightly, “we play one day and then practice the next day,” said varsity golfer and senior Leo Hartley, who joined the golf team his freshman year.

The team also practices at a country club this year, which means that the team has to be careful of private courses’ somewhat stringent rules and etiquette. “We kind of have to earn our keep,” junior Matthew Martin said.

During practice itself, the team divides itself into groups, with one staying on the range and practice area, and the other going out to play on the course.

After placing third in state last year, both Martin and Hartley emphasized that while winning and going to state is an important goal, another goal is enjoying themselves.

“I just want to see everyone not only play good, but just have fun. Because golf’s not a really popular sport,” Martin said.

One potential hindrance to golf’s popularity is the timing of the matches — with the vast majority of them taking place during the school day.

During the game, every player is assigned a seed, which denotes the order in which they will tee off, starting with the No. 1 seed and moving down.

Despite golf being a more individual sport, the team still must work together at critical times like at matches, according to Martin.

In terms of strategy, players who have already played on the specific course will communicate to others skills and techniques for the course, as well as how it is structured, he said.

“During tournaments, you have to realize you’re not playing for yourself,” he said. “You’re playing for your team, you’re playing for your school.”

Hartley echoed this, stating that “the best way to help your team is to do the best you can yourself.”

According to Hartley, just as playing individually doesn’t eliminate the need for teamwork, it also doesn’t mean the sport isn’t competitive.

“It’s just competitive in a different way,” he said. “It’s not like a physical sport at all, but it just takes a lot of time and [a] lot of grinding.”

In terms of team culture, Hartley said that during practices, the team enjoys themselves and has lots of laughs.

“We all get along pretty well,” he said.

However, there are some challenges in terms of seeing each other in non-golf related contexts, according to Hartley.

“We’ll play with each other every now and then, like on the weekends and stuff, but there’s not really that much we can do,” he said. “We’re practicing every single day, so we’re seeing each other a lot.”

Like all sports, golf has its own unique challenges, one of which being the mental impact it has on players, according to Martin.

“Golf’s probably, as many people know, a more mentally challenging sport than a [physical] one,” he said. “I would say really just the mental part of it for a lot of people is challenging.”

Looking into the new season, both Martin and Hartley expressed wanting to enjoy themselves during the season.

“I’d like to [win], but I just want to have fun with my friends and the team, just for my last year,” Hartley said.