The Allen Eagle golf program has completed its first half of the season in the fall and are getting ready for the spring. The women have completed five tournaments and have five remaining; the men have done four tournaments and have five remaining.

The teams are working by making adjustments in their game and learning what they need to do to improve. These changes will be a key in the Eagles turnaround.

“We need to get better at scoring. We waste a few shots and strokes every now and then and that takes us down a few places a lot of the times,” senior women’s golfer Hunter Phelps said.

Allen has been held back by some costly mistakes on the green so far this season. Both teams have come up short putting the ball. The guys and girls need to fix this issue which has plagued them in the early part of the season in order to make the team’s goals a reality.

“I think our team as a whole need to work on our short game, closer chips and less putts equals lower scores,” sophomore men’s golfer Carter Brown said. “We plan on having more meaningful and productive practice sessions, during and not during school practice and the whole team making an effort to get better.”

The effort to improve is important if the Lady Eagles plan on making it back to the state tournament. The Allen women’s team has been to the state tournament the last five years in a row now and have won the event five times including in 2014.

“I think we do have the ability to [make it to state], if we put in the hard work we are know we will,” junior women’s golfer Julia Gaumer said.

Going beyond the high school level many of these lady golfers will be playing golf in college in the near future. The athletes that are extending their career past Allen golf have the experiences necessary now to make it at the next level.

“It is pretty similar competition and I will be playing with some of the girls I have played with before,” Phelps said. “[High school] has really helped me become part of a team because even though we are out there alone it really is a team sport.”

Both of the teams are looking to make magic happen for the Allen golfing program. The quest for another state title for the women’s starts with the spring tournaments and the men look to surge through the same tournaments to go where no Allen men’s team has gone before, the state tournament.

“The team firmly believes a good goal for this spring is getting our team score under 300 and making it out of districts and possibly making state,” Brown said. “Just making it to state as a team would be a victory, since no boys team has ever made it.”