Carlsbad’s golfers will have one final chance to qualify for the state tournaments this Monday at the district tournament hosted by the Riverside Country Club here in Carlsbad.

The Cavemen and Cavegirls have had to squeeze in nine varsity golf matches in less than seven weeks on the golf courses of Carlsbad, Artesia, Hobbs, Lovington and Roswell. Carlsbad head coach Byron Jones is proud of the work his team did this season.

“First let me say that this has been a crazy year. Normally golf season starts in February and we have almost all the JV tournaments done by the time the varsity tournaments starts in late March or early April,” Jones said. “However, this year due to COVID safety protocols we had to start the season much later. We were able to get 16 tournaments in, that is JV and varsity combined, in a very short amount of time. We had a large number of eighth graders come out this year which is great. We hope that they all stay out for all four years of high school.” 

In addition to the youth, Carlsbad has four seniors on the team: Cavemen Eli House, Kevan Granado and Andrew Jimenez and Cavegirl Cannon Hughes.

Cannon Hughes played in eight matches for the Cavegirls. Every round she finished somewhere in the 90’s to average 94.6 strokes.

Eli House has competed in seven varsity matches this year and he’s had the lowest round of anyone on his team each time. House’s rounds have ranged from 76 to 85 with an average of 79.9 strokes.

Kevan Granado has consistently hit in the high 80’s and low 90’s all season. Four times he’s shot a 93, three times a 93 and he’s only been over 100 once this season with a 101 to average 92.5 strokes a round.