It only took one match for junior Joe Murdock to break out of the gates and live up to the expectations set by his head coach, Paul TenEyck.

“Joe has prided himself on working hard to improve his game this offseason, and we expected him to carry the load early,” coach TenEyck said. “From the tee to the green, he played very well today at the Forest Hills Invitational.”

Finishing off his Forest Hills Invitational round at Egypt Valley Country Club, Joe drove and putted his way towards a team-high score of 75 and a 5th place finish to solidify himself amongst the better golfers in West Michigan.

“For the first tournament of the year, I think I played as well as I could have hoped for,” Murdock said. “Overall, I got off on the right foot to start the season and am hoping to see my scores continue to decrease throughout the season because I am confident that I could have gotten first today.”

Anchoring Joe’s noteworthy performance, freshman Nicholas Notarnacola pulled the rest of the team’s weight with an especially impressive outing for a freshman, scoring an 88 on the day. It goes without saying that Nicholas set the perfect foundation for his young high school golfing career; the FHC boys varsity golf program is in good hands for years to come.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking to start out my high school golf career in a huge tournament like this one, but I think I found my groove as the tournament progressed,” Nicholas said when asked about how it felt to kick off his varsity golf campaign on a big stage. “Even though I am happy about how I played, I obviously can still work on my ball striking and putting.”

In the wake of a prolonged break from golf, coach Paul TenEyck and his band of golfers hope that their 10th place finish behind teams such as Rockford and Forest Hills Northern at yesterday’s tournament will not write the whole story for this season. Their next opportunity to scrape off the rust comes on Tuesday, April 12th at the Kent Country Club’s OK White Jamboree.

“We will need to knock the rust off in a hurry, and I expect to get better as the week goes on,” said coach TenEyck.