‘Take back the plaque’ is the team mantra this year for Oyster River’s Varsity Golf team. With the close match on Thursday night, winning by a single stroke against the 2022 state champions Bow, Oyster River is one step closer to another title.

If you aren’t entirely sure how a golf match works, here’s the rundown. There are multiple schools at each match. On Thursday , along with Oyster River, wasere Bow, Merrimack Valley, and Alvirne High School. By the end of the match the top five lowest scores are added together from each team. For Oyster River it was Myles O’Quinn (‘24) who shot a 36, Delaney Nadeau (‘24) 38, Teagan Nadeau (‘26) 39, Jackson Follis (‘25) 39, and Owen Jaques (‘26) 41. This added to a combined score of 193. Bow rang in with a score of 194. A single swing extra on Bow’s part, giving Oyster River the win.  

It’s common to think of golf as individualized, because for the most part it is. Each player is separated and paired up with the adjacent seed from competing schools. In the picture above Nadeau (‘24) is comparing scores with her 2-seed partner from Alvirne. Golf is a unique team sport but Coach Paul Bamford notes, “You’ll see that at the end of the match, everybody comes in around the green cheering everyone on.”  

Throughout the match, however, the team is unaware of how well their teammates are doing. Nadeau (‘26) referenced this stating, “It can be hard, because you don’t know how other people are doing or what the scores are. It’s difficult to lean on other people and you can put a lot of pressure on yourself.”  

That is a crucial aspect of golf when competing at the team level. The ebbs and flows of play can alter the outcome.  In the case of Thursday’s match players seeded lower stepped up to fill the shoes of those who shot higher than usual.  

– Maeve Hickok