The short but sweet golf season came to an end this past weekend with the 4A state tournament. The Pleasant Valley Boys golf team headed to the district tournament at Palmer Hills with high hopes of qualifying as a team for the state tournament. Unfortunately after a long round, the boys did not qualify for state as a team, but one well-improved individual golfer on the team did. With a score of 74, Michael Showers was able to advance to the state tournament as a solo player. The team had a good season ending up with an overall record of 49-28. When head coach Andy Ward was asked about how the season went, he responded with, “I think the season overall went well. We had individual players step up at different times throughout the season, and a lot of younger guys showed a lot of promise and potential for future years.” This is a promising sign since the team is losing four of their varsity members who were seniors. One of those is Showers, the senior who qualified for state.
As a junior, Showers was a solid golfer, but on a state-contender golf team he didn’t quite make the cut for varsity by one spot. Over the summer he had one goal in mind, and that was to improve in the sport and make it into varsity. Clearly, with this much improvement in one season, Showers has worked extremely hard. When asked about what has lead him into developing as the golfer he is, he responded by saying, “I have worked on my game for countless hours, and I was just happy to see everything work out and get to have a chance to play two more rounds. My work ethic has been my strongest asset in becoming a solid golfer. I pushed through the tough times and am more than happy at how I finished the season.”
All of Showers’ hard work paid off when he qualified for the state tournament. He left school on Thursday and headed to the Tournament Club of Iowa in hopes of having a successful round at the Iowa High School Boys Golf Class 4A State Tournament. To be successful at something, one must first set goals or expectations. Showers did this in saying, “I was expecting my round at districts to carry over, and I had gained a lot of confidence in my golf game. It was a great honor playing at state and I am thankful for the opportunity.” While Showers did not end up shooting another 74, he still did very well. He shot a combined score of 169 through two rounds, placing him at 41st place out of 81. Overall, that’s an extremely good result, and the team and school were extremely proud of Showers’ accomplishments.
