Golf: County playing catch-up with tri-matches

The golf season is always a short one, with 11 regular season matches each fall crammed into a little over a month. This season, though, thanks to several weather-related postponements, things have been even more jam-packed than usual.

Three matches per week has become the norm for almost everyone and several squads have even decided to try tri-matches for the first time since golf became a varsity sport in 2005.

With tee times at local courses becoming hard to come by more than twice a week, the sentiment has become to get matches in whatever way teams can.

"Having that whole week off really threw a wrench in things and now it's catch-up time. The tri-matches have been a great solution for us," said River Hill coach Matt Graves, whose team entering the week had already played two tri-matches.

As opposed to the traditional dual matches, which feature two players from each team in the same group, the tri-matches are played in threesomes with one player from each team. Graves says he's noticed that the smaller groups have really helped with pace of play and have also simulated a post-season-like atmosphere.

"Separating the kids from one another makes it almost like a county tournament or district tournament format, where you aren't necessarily playing with someone you know," Graves said. "Some people might not like that, but I think it's good experience for them. There seems to be less talking and more focusing on playing, which speeds things up too."

Graves, along with several other county coaches, have said they'd be up for exploring more tri-matches built into the permanent schedule starting next year if the courses are on board. With less match days, there would be more time for practice.

However, other coaches, like Atholton's Scott Robinson, say there would be drawbacks to such a move.

"As a coach, you carry seven or eight kids on a team and you want to rotate certain kids into certain matches. With these tri-matches, if you are playing against teams with very different skill levels, you lose the ability to do that," Robinson said. "I like the ability to set my line-up based on each different opponent."

For the time being, though, county coaches have had to be flexible.

Several more tri-matches are scheduled for the remainder of the season, including one on Oct. 11 at Cattail Creek Country Club between Glenelg, Marriotts Ridge and Centennial that will have a significant impact on the boys county championship race.

Silberberg and Nguyen chasing history

The fact that Wilde Lake's Tyler Silberberg and Atholton's Bryana Nguyen are currently leading the county in scoring average should come as no surprise.

After all, those two were last year's leading scorers as well.

But it would have been hard to predict just how good the duo has been so far this fall.

More than halfway through the regular season both Silberberg and Nguyen are averaging more than 27 points a match, which is the equivalent to having an under-par scoring average for nine holes. Since 2005, only Oakland Mills' Donnie Shin has finished with an average higher than 27.

He finished the 2005 season with an average of 28.1.

Silberberg currently sits at 28.4 through five rounds, coming off a week where he averaged 29.3 points in three matches. Two of those outings came against Glenelg and Marriotts Ridge, a couple of the county's best teams.

"I always know what I'm going to get from Tyler," Wilde Lake coach Diane Caporaletti said. "He's to the point where it doesn't matter what course we're playing, who we're playing against or what the conditions are … he's going to score right around par or better."

Nguyen has been just as consistent, scoring 26 points or better every time out for an average of 27.4 through five matches. Her best round of the season to date was a 29-point day at Waverly Woods and she has shot over par only once

"She has such a great rhythm to her swing … she just doesn't hit that many bad shots," Atholton coach Scott Robinson said. "And if she does happen to get herself in trouble, she's so composed that she gets herself right out of it."