Following a series of historic years for Glen Lake golf, the upcoming season may serve as a reality check for the youthful Laker team as they strive to remain competitive in 2024.
Glen Lake coach Lee Houtteman is ready to put his golf professional skills to the test.
“I’m doing a lot of teaching. We got some good athletes coming out. Try to develop them as players,” Houtteman said. “I’m doing a lot of teaching. We got some good athletes coming out. Try to develop them as players,” Houtteman said. “As a teacher and trying to teach people the game, when you really get down to it, if I can develop golfers that want to play after they graduate from school that’s really why I’m doing it.”
The Lakers will be sporting four freshmen this season, and several upperclassmen.
There were talks of having Suttons Bay and St. Mary golfers join the team but that fell through in the early stages.
Suttons Bay and St. Mary cooperative golf team will not be a thing, just like the track team.
Glen Lake junior Michael Houtteman is ready to swing the club with precision as he hopes to lead the Lakers back to the state championship meet and compete for an individual title himself.
“Everyone thinks we had a drop off because we lost a lot of seniors, but after our first couple tournaments, we can compete coming up in these next few months,” Houtteman said.
Over the winter, Houtteman has been working on his short game to start the season as his swing was the focus for most of the winter. Houtteman’s advice to the underclassmen is to have them knock it onto the green and try to two-putt every time.
Glen Lake finished second with a four-person score of 319, only 10 strokes behind Charlevoix, who took home the regional crown in 2023. The Lakers won a regional championship in 2022.
Houtteman and O’Connor shot an 18-hole score of 75 (+3).
Houtteman finished seventh overall with a 155 at the individual state competition. Houtteman placed fifth during his freshman campaign last year.
The Lakers will have to replace the production of seniors Blake O’Connor, Garrett Moss, and Drew Dezelski who all played critical roles for the Lakers team state championship run.
Glen Lake crawled back into title contention and finished third overall with a four-player, 36-hole score of 650. The Lakers finished Friday (round one) fifth overall before finding their groove on Saturday. Glen Lake jumped two positions and shot a four player score of 315 behind strong performances from all Laker golfers.
Glen Lake senior Jacob Switzer is ready to hit the links with stride.
“It’s fun to get back out there and keep playing golf. It’s fun to be playing,” Switzer said. “(My favorite thing about golf) to open up, start the season. It’s really fun to go out here and meet the new team. See what we got.”
