After winning only one of sixteen games in the 2016 season, the Terra Linda Women’s golf team astonished all when the team won all fourteen games this year, defeating Tam in the MCAL (Marin County Athletic League) finals, and winning 3rd place in NCS (North Coast Sectionals). Captain Izzy Gold, Sophomore, said that the team’s winning season “…felt kind of mind blowing.” Gold, who was the best returning player from last season, only started playing competitively when she entered high school.

As captain, Gold’s job entailed “making sure everyone remained focused, didn’t get nervous, and just had fun,” as well as informing new players of the courses that she has played. She says that she likes her coach, Steve Troya, because he’s had a losing team for so long, but is still able to stay positive and goofy. His attitude fits with the team dynamic, which Gold describes as “like a family.” She explained that everyone has a different skill set, and the team will ask each other for help when struggling with something that someone else excels in.

Before games, it is a tradition for Coach Troya to give all the girls Cracker Jacks, Seniors Maria Gurrola and Josselyn Chay told The Voice. The hardest part of golf “…is definitely the mental aspect. People don’t give it enough credit because not enough people have played it but you need to stay so focused that if you don’t and you mess up it can affect the next hole and the next hole and the next hole,” explains Gold.

While Chay and Gurrola like golf because they don’t have to run, Gold says that she enjoys the sport because “You get to go to these places that are so beautiful and so great and just play a sport that you need to really focus on because if you mess up it can affect your whole game.” When asked what the team has improved in most this year, all three players replied “everything.”

Of all the events in the season, Chay said that getting third in NCS as well as receiving a medal, were among her top memories. Gold responded that her favorite memory was “winning our first game because we went 1 and 15 last season and winning our first game this year, the seniors and I just kind of freaked out because we were like ‘we just won a game, by a lot.’ It was crazy.”

As for next year, who knows what’s going to happen, but Gold says that “she hopes it’s going to be the same level of competitiveness and that we have another great season!”

Go Trojans!