Lansing boys golf starts strong with young team

As the calendar flips from April to May, the hope is that the weather gets nicer for the Section IV golf season. While there have only been a handful of matches so far, the Lansing boys golf team has been making the most of it.

The Bobcats have won their first five matches of the year, as of May 4. They’ve been able to carry over their success from 2024 despite a different look to the roster. There are plenty of additions to the team with 14 golfers in total, and only three are upperclassmen. For many, it’s their first time playing competitive golf or the sport in general. For head coach Matt Loveless, the poor weather early on in the season was actually beneficial in getting everyone up to speed.

“Obviously, we would prefer to be outside playing that of course as much as we could,” Loveless said. “But from a learning perspective, it was nice to have that time in the classroom. We literally spent time in my classroom. If we weren’t putting, we were looking at some rules videos or having those conversations about rules etiquette, those types of things. With the inexperience comes feeling their way around the course. When they’re going through matches, especially the younger kids, they’re gaining confidence and they’re gaining that experience at the same time.”

What stands out about the Bobcats so far is how incredibly well-balanced they’ve been. In any given match, their top five golfers finish within 10 strokes of each other. That has also been a big boost to this young team’s confidence.

“Knowing that there’s consistency there with their teammates, it’s beneficial for them when they tee off and when they’re out there playing,” Loveless said. “What I’ve seen so far, when somebody hits a loose shot or something like that, they’re not dwelling on it. They’re just moving on to the next shot, which is very encouraging to see, especially this early in the season.”

One of the seniors on the Bobcats is Will Stallone. Last year was his first season on the team after switching over from baseball, and he thrived with a fifth-place finish at the IAC championship and a participant in the Section IV medalist tournament. He’s aiming for more of the same in his final season of athletics at Lansing.

“Playing competitive golf is different than playing just social golf with your friends on the weekend or after school,” Loveless said. “Him getting that experience and the confidence was very helpful. He’s really carried that momentum into this season. Him making the medalist tournament last year, having the average of below 55, that’s obviously a goal for him this year is not only to get there, but also to put himself in a position, maybe on the second day, where he is there when it comes time to select the top nine guys from Section IV.”

While Stallone is one of Lansing’s oldest golfers, Nicco Binns is the most experienced. The sophomore is in his fourth year on the varsity team. His bowling talents are well-known during the winter, and he’s followed that up on the course during the spring, highlighted by his eighth-place finish at IACs, a league MVP and a sixth-place finish at sectionals last year.

“There’s always at least one or two kids on the team that I refer to as ‘golf course rats,’ meaning that they’re constantly on the course looking to tweak or refine skills in different areas, whether it’s the short game or iron work and stuff like that,” Loveless said. “Nicco is our example of that… Nicco is the type of student-athlete where he’s a quiet leader, where he’s not going to say a lot, but really where he leads is through his actions… For our younger players to see that a lot of times, that feeds into them and develops those types of habits, and it leads to success in a lot of cases. I can’t say enough about him and his work ethic.”

There are four middle schoolers on the Bobcats, and Mason Sandsted is one of those standouts. The eighth grader has consistently been in the top five on the team, making him a special talent for the present and future of the program.

“He swings the club just naturally with ease,” Loveless said. “It reminds me a lot of Fred Couples where it seems like there’s not much effort he puts into the swing. It’s just a nice, easy, smooth swing. He’s got a natural draw. I told him a lot of people pay a lot of money to get a lot of lessons to develop a swing like that. And for him, it’s just come naturally. He’s been a pleasant surprise.”

Other golfers who have shined so far include sophomore Ian Leshinski, freshman Ryan Hunter and seventh grader Stephen Taylor.

Lansing hopes to repeat its success from last season by defending its IAC title and improving on its third-place finish at sectionals. Early signs are certainly encouraging for a young and hungry Bobcats team.