Cape golf team goes lower

The Cape golf team went lower again with a March 26 home victory against Lake Forest at Rehoboth Beach Country Club.

The Vikings’ 166 total was five strokes below their March 21 result in defeating Smyrna at Garrison’s Lake. It also matched the team’s best score from last season, reached on two occasions.

Before last season, the last time Cape scored below 166 was 2018, when the Vikings posted two 164s.

This is a nice trend.

Kingston Davis earned medalist honors against the Spartans with his two-over 38.

“I played pretty good. I doubled No. 3 with a bad chip and bad putt. After that, I played pretty consistent. I birdied nine [when I] made a long putt. I missed a short one on eight, so that made up for it,” Davis said.

Travers Johnson and Eddie Ghabour tied with a pair of 42s. Johnson said, “I shot well. Made only one double bogey on the last hole. The rest were bogeys and pars.”

Ghabour said, “It was a little windy out, but I didn’t let that get to my head. I just knew I had to play smart golf, keep it out of the wind and just keep my balls low, and try to get onto the green in a few shots as possible.”

Tyler Healy and Gabby Hamstead also tied each other with 44s. After the round, Healy focused on the sixth hole. “I hit a driver on six and I just pushed it in the water, which is pretty frustrating because I was hitting it well up until then. I feel like I could have gained a couple strokes.”

Hamstead nearly aced the par 3 third hole. Her tee shot hit the flag and stopped a short distance away. Observers at least 75 yards from the tee box heard her “Oh my god!” reaction scream.

In a post-round chat, Hamstead smiled about the third hole, but then began an animated explanation of her problems with the sixth, seventh and eighth holes.

This is what golfers do, at any age. 

It is also a good indication of her ambition to improve.

High school golf roundup

The Sussex Academy golf team won its third straight match March 25, defeating visiting Smyrna 174-207 at Kings Creek Country Club. Junior Austin Dostal won medalist honors with a nine-hole score of 42. The Seahawks recorded the six best scores of the day. Following Dostal were juniors Quentin Bowman, McKenna Danahy and Dominic Piperno with rounds of 44 each. Freshman Ryan Dostal and junior Keenan Williams posted a pair of 47s.

The Delmarva Christian golf team kicked off the season with a pair of wins over Red Lion and Mt. Sophia Academy March 22 at Delcastle Golf Club. The Royals defeated Red Lion 173-217 and Mt. Sophia 173-287. Red Lion’s Dane Matthews took medalist honors with a 40. Delmarva Christian recorded the next best scores, with Joel Perry leading the way with a 41. Avery Brown scored 42, while Lance McQuay tallied a 44, Edward Higgins and Gideon Woods finished at 46 apiece and Daniel Genga rounded it out with a 49.

StrackaLine

I don’t often see golfers in the Cape Region whipping out a greens book to help with putting during casual rounds. 

I see them when I cover the LPGA Tour or collegiate events such as the Blue Hen Invitational at Rehoboth Beach CC or Delaware State’s Hornet Invitational at Kings Creek CC.

Detailed information about the greens can make a big difference at those levels, which is why StrackaLine does a nice bit of business.

At this year’s PGA Show, I met Justin Porter, vice president of sales for the California company. He discussed the three basic services it provides. 

For golf operations, StrackaLine provides detailed hole locations. The software identifies useful hole spots, which, depending on design and size, may be far more than the often-assumed four areas per green. The software also warns staffers which parts of the green should never be used for hole locations due to excessive slope or other playability considerations. 

The color coding uses a traffic-light rubric to rank from appropriate hole areas (green) to undesirable (yellow) to don’t-even-think-about-it (red). The color-coded mapping also creates the tee sheets for that day, in full color or shaded black and white.

StrackaLine provides a similar service for tournament operators such as the American Junior Golf Association. Porter said the software helps prioritize which locations should be shifted from one round to the next, using the common approach of providing six hard, six easy and six neutral hole locations for the 18 holes over three or four rounds. The resulting tee sheets become sought-after prizes.

StrackaLine’s other major service is the creation and sale of its famous green books. Golfers can go to the company’s website, enter their favorite course’s name, and discover which purchase options apply. 

For example, the green book for Rehoboth Beach CC comes in a yardage and greens combo, which includes the green topography and tee-to-green measurements. Greens-only booklets and yardage-only booklets are also available for a modest discount from the base $39 charge for the full green book. StrackaLine also sells a trifold card featuring 2-by-2-inch visuals of each green, including green topography and the surrounding area.

On the other hand, the Rookery’s green book is yardage only, with no green topography information.

All these items are USGA-legal, according to Porter.

He also described how the company develops its topographical maps. It already has thousands of courses in its database. For a new course, they will walk it and laser it, Porter said. In addition, StrackaLine extracts elevation data from pixel-level analysis of aerial photogrammetry. 

That sounds way better than just staring at the ground and guessing.

Porter said the company charges an annual $2,000 subscription for the facility hole location software, including training, support and upgrades. It provides event-based location software to tournament operators at no direct cost. Instead, the operators promote the StrackaLine books to their players, leading to sales opportunities for the company.