PEABODY — The Peabody golf team faced off against the Marblehead Magicians in its first golf match of the season Tuesday. Despite a strong effort at The Meadow in Peabody, the Tanners fell 28-44.
After the match, Tanners coach Peter Cronan praised a strong Marblehead team.
“Marblehead is a very good team. I thought we played competitively against them, which is good. Overall, I feel we did really well against Marblehead,” Cronan said. “I think the boys are disappointed, but I hope they realize Marblehead is one of the best teams in our league and we were basically six points away from winning the match.”
Some individual performances that stuck out to Cronan were captain Matt Ryder, Mason Clickstein, and Mike Ryan.
“My captain Matt Ryder won his match 5-4 and he played really well today,” Cronan said. “Mason Clickstein played number one for me. Despite losing 4-5, he was playing as the number one and he did very well. Mike Ryan also lost 4-5, but he was very competitive and – with a stroke here or there – could have won the match.”
No matter the hole and no matter the score, the Tanners never quit.
“What I like about this team is the competitiveness in them,” Cronan said. “For example, Nathan Palhare is new to the team this year and he started the match losing the first three holes and ended up halving the match 4.5 to 4.5. To keep being competitive despite being down is big. The team didn’t give up and that’s what I was happy about.”
The Tanners graduated six players from the 2022 squad, and Tuesday marked the first competitive match for some players.
“Four of the eight players who scored today – it was their first high school match ever. Basically, they had no idea what to expect, so hopefully they can learn from it and we can advance from there,” Cronan said. “I thought they were excellent. Mike Petro played for me before, but he didn’t play last year and he got a point and a half against a buzzsaw from Marblehead. Then Joe Keka got two and a half points and that was his first match ever. He played really hard.”
“Last year I had six seniors so we had a big turnover this year,” Cronan said. “We have some good quality players and I hope over the next five weeks we continue to improve. I am really optimistic.”
When asked if he had anything for his team to improve on, Cronan talked about the short game.
“I’m sure it’s the same for every coach and team,” Cronan said. “I think chipping and putting will make a big difference for us over the year and keep our scores down. Leaving a few putts here and there can be the difference between winning and losing.”
As a coach, Cronan not only wants to improve his players every week, but make sure they develop as good people as golf is a “lifelong game” that they can play beyond school.
“We want to win as many matches as possible,” Cronan said. “Other than winning, I want to develop golfers. I want to see improvement in their golf skills and how they manage themselves around the golf course and how they interact with the other players on the other team.”
Peabody’s next match is Thursday on the road against Winthrop.
