The Mason High School girls golf team is showing why it is among the elite in the state.
The Cowgirls won the San Saba Invitational March 25 with their best scores of the year, illustrating their dominance.
They have won four of their last five tournaments and have captured three in a row.
And what's truly troubling for the rest of Class 2A is that head coach Kade Burns bethe golfers are capable of lower scores.
“I just don’t think that we’ve played to our best,” he said. “It’s very, very good, I guess, to some extent. I feel like some are playing well, some are not quite playing as well as they’re capable of playing, but that’s the game of golf. It’s very, very hard. We want to get better in certain aspects, but it’s nice to see us coming off these last couple of wins.”
During the District 29-2A Preview March 19, some of the Cowgirls were done about 90 minutes faster than the rest of the field, which illustrates their efficiency, knowledge of the course, and ability to quickly get on the greens and shoot low scores.
That combination is typically too much for opponents to overcome.
The other is etched on the Cowgirls’ caps and golf bags – the state championship years from the last three seasons. In other words, even those opponents who may not want to be reminded of the excellence of Mason golf find it’s too hard to ignore when it’s plain for all to see.
The other is the Cowgirls play as if they haven’t achieved anything.
“It’s a tremendous accomplishment,” the coach said of the winning the last three state titles. “And (my) kids care less about last year. I’ve been really pleased with their work ethic almost to the point where I’m asking some of them to not play so much just because I don’t want them to get mentally worn out. I want them to be sharp and ready to go when it’s time to play. Sometimes you go out there and practice for three or four hours. Well, no one on the planet practices that long, but some of our kids go very, very long. And they really want to (win) four in a row. They’re working for it every day. I see them out there on the weekends. They go out on their own.”
That drive comes from having something that every competitor wants and the caretaker refusing to let it go without a battle.
“It comes with being a state champion, and they want to make it four in a row,” Burns said. “Yeah, we’ve been fortunate the last three years to graduate some kids, but not the whole team. So there’s always been remnants of the previous state championship team, and so that’s very, very helpful. You have somebody that’s been a state champion, and they can help maybe a new kid on the team. The good thing is we have three. That’s been very fortunate from a coaching standpoint, because it’s not mandatory, but it does help.”
The final round of the district tournament begins at 9:00 a.m. Monday, April 7, at the Llano River Golf Course.
