“If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf. – Bob HopeOn a balmy day, with the sun shining on the pristine clipped green of the course, it’s hard to think of golf as hard work. But the Spartan golf team is a serious crew, out to better last season’s almost unblemished record. And in a game where individual effort tallies for the team’s composite score, there is always something you can improve on, says BHS senior Ian Faddis. You can always play better.The girls’ varsity team went undefeated in league play last year, while the boys placed second in league with an 8-1 record, losing only to Bremerton in the last match of the season. The team boasted a 13-2 overall record. Now, with the spotlight on senior Nicole Hebner and junior Joe Lanza, the Spartans hope to contend for the league championship this year, says BHS Athletic Director Neal White.After coaching the teams for the past three years, White has turned the squads over to new varsity coaches Doug Cook and Marni Synder, and JV coach Mike Welch. Cook and Snyder share a philosophy of being competitive without pressuring the kids to win. They agree their goal is to build the program up, particularly in the girls’ field.Bainbridge has a rich tradition of female players like Stephanie Davis, who was runner up in the U.S. women’s amateur (in 1990), Cook said. We need to build our girl’s program on that tradition.Snyder said she is passionate about girls seeing success in sports, and that golf is a sport to enjoy for a lifetime.Much of their hopes this year rests with three-letter athlete Hebner, who has competed and placed at state for the past three years. Hebner has the potential to qualify for boys’ play as well, so she is in a position to pick and choose which competitions will make up her allowed 12 matches.I have two goals this year, said Hebner, who confides that golf is her favorite among the sports in which she competes. The first is for our team to win all our matches. The second is a personal goal to compete at state, drop my score, and do better this year.Returning players Katja Trygg and Angela Asher join veteran Hebner and the younger trio of Christine Schwager, Fab Rezayat, and Tiffany Johnson. Snyder is banking on the three veterans to help the less experienced group. From the results of Thursday’s first season match at Glen Eagles, the girls are well on their way. The Spartans soundly defeated three other teams with a score of 77 – the closest score was 53. Under the Stableford point system, which is used in match play, the team score is based on a tally for each hole: one for a bogie, two for par, three for a birdie. Oddly for golf, the highest score wins. Leading on the boys’ side this year is the three-handicap Lanza, who placed at state in his freshman and sophomore years. The team lost last year’s seniors Joel Merkel, Lauren Jorgensen, and Amelia Gingold, but gained new blood. The Tiger Woods phenomenon has reached our school, said Cook, a self-avowed golf nut and past president of Wing Point Golf and Country Club. We have six freshmen in our program this year, and we hope to keep on building on that. Seniors Faddis and Tyler Horne, juniors Luke McCloskey and Matt Reynvaan, and sophomores Ryan Mahoney and Jarrett Jorgensen make up the varsity. Juniors Drew Siler and Kevin Kramer have their eye on the varsity lineup, and freshmen James Toepel and Nick Dubitsky are hoping to bring their skills to the team as well. We have always had good individuals, but depth-wise, we are getting better and better, said White. Our strength for boys varsity is our depth. We have 10 kids we can draw from for varsity. The varsity boys face their first opponent Thursday against Peninsula. The JV team picked up its first win this week against NK, by a score of 71 to 60.Faddis said he is excited about the upcoming season. We look good this year, he said, (but) Central Kitsap is definitely the team to beat. Every time you go out, it’s a challenge, he added. You can never play a perfect round of golf.”