San Juan boys golf team sits in fourth place in Region 15 nearing the midpoint of the season

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School golf team has three Region 15 matches under their belts and they’ll be halfway through their regular season by the time you read this story.
They played their fourth match on Tuesday, August 29 at the Palisade Golf Course in Sterling, UT. The match was played after the San Juan Record print deadline so we’ll report the results in a future issue.
At the time of the writing of this story the Broncos had played the Millsite Golf Course in Ferron on August 10, the Moab Golf Course on August 15, and the Hideout Golf Course in Monticello on August 22.
Before their match this week the team sat tenth in the 2A standings, averaging 452 strokes per round. They were fourth in Region 15 behind Grand County, North Summit, and Gunnison Valley.
Through the first three matches RJ Dalley leads the team with a 100-stroke average. Jett Johnson is averaging 115.33 strokes per round. Kavan Harris is shooting 122.7 and Cooper Yoakam is right behind with a 124.7 average.
Kaleb Johnson averaged 125.5 strokes in the Moab and Monticello matches. Lachlan Lacy averaged 152 strokes in those two rounds and Denim Howell shot a 144-stroke average.
Wes Jones and Nash Jones were quite a solid pair for San Juan at the Hideout, their only round of the season so far. Nash shot a 107 and Wes hit 108 in that event.
Kavan Harris earns the “Most Improved Golfer” award at the midpoint of the season, besting his scores very impressively over his first three rounds.
He shot a 139 at Millsite, dropped 18 strokes to shoot 121 in Moab, then dropped another 13 strokes to hit 108 at the Hideout.
Lehi Lacy, who took over as head coach for San Juan boys golf this season, recently fielded several questions via email. Here are some of his comments:
Rhett Sifford: What can you tell me about your team this year?
Lehi Lacy: We have some great senior leaders who are showing the way for the other players. All of them are helping each other and assisting the younger golfers with any questions they ask and any help they need.
RS: Which of your athletes have made great strides since last year?
LL: The seniors: RJ Dalley, Jett Johnson, Cooper Yoakam, Kaleb Johnson, and Denim Howell have all improved over the years. Kavan Harris and Lachlan Lacy are also learning and improving.
RS: What are the team’s strengths?
LL: We have been working on our short game from 100 yards to the green and putting. We will see our scores go down as the season continues.
RS: Which parts of the game are you working to improve?
LL: Leaving the Driver in the bag. We don’t need bad drives. Start with a club you can consistently hit 150 to 200 yards. Hit it off the tee, then one more time, and we should be in our short game range that we are focusing on in practice.
RS: What are your goals for the season?
LL: Getting good with our short shots and getting our putts down.
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Following their match at Palisade the Broncos are next in action at the beautiful Roosevelt Municipal Golf Course in Roosevelt on Wednesday, September 6. They’ll play at the Carbon Country Club on September 13.