By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Last fall the Franklin golf team went an impressive 12-1 within the league to become co-champions of the Hockomock League with King Philip. The Panthers and Warriors each blemished the other’s perfect league record defeating one another. Unfortunately, Franklin had a rough time with its non-league schedule, the hardest in the state, losing all four matches to finish the regular season 12-5. 

Although the Panther golfers advanced into the State Tournament, they were unable to advance as one of the 6 teams into the State Finals. According to Coach Bo Botelho, over the last decade, Franklin has a been a dominating force within the Hockomock League but just haven’t been able to get things done once they get into the post-season. 

“We set lofty goals on a regular basis and would love to share the Hockomock Title with King Philip again, but our biggest goal is a better showing at the State Tournament,” the Panther Coach said. “I would rather go 0-2 against KP and go to the State Finals instead of going 2-0 against them while we watch them go to the Finals.”

Leading Franklin this fall on the links will be junior Ben Burgess and Tyler Perlman. Both golfers are relatively equal when it comes to play and on any given day could be the team’s number one golfer. At the time of this writing, Burgess currently held the top spot with a 37.5 average over the first two matches of the season, while Perlman was sitting at 39.5. Botelho has seen improvement over last year in both golfers.

While Burgess and Perlman are battling it out for the top two spots, senior co-captain Dylan O’Brien, the squads only four-year player, is right behind them in the third position shooting a 40.5 thus far, a shot and a half better than his average from last fall.

“Dylan knows that he is an important part of the team, and we need him to take his game to the next level,” the Coach said. “It is critical that he goes out and gives us a 39 every other match to take some of the pressure off the rest of the team; it will do us a lot of good.”

Bryce Botelho (averaging a 42) played himself a lot of tournament golf over the off-season and should find himself within the top six on the team. Currently, he is teeing off in the fourth position and has shot a 37 in practice giving the young golfer a lot of confidence. 

“He’s a golfaholic and has had a couple of really good tournaments this summer,” Botelho said. “He shot multiple rounds under 40 and this will be key to helping Ben and Tyler.”

Playing in only his second season with the team, senior Chris Shanahan is holding onto the fifth spot in the early goings with a 45.5 average: three strokes below last year. Shanahan only got into a mere two matches last year due to the talented players in front of him. Along with Botelho, Shanahan is one of the most improved players on the squad this season. The Panther Coach noted that the senior has been performing really well in practice, and he needs him to take that mentality and ability to the course during matches. Botelho is hoping that he can improve and move his way into the top four. 

Rounding out the top six is another senior, Gabe Rodrigues. Last year, Rodrigues was a surprise and came out of nowhere. He was the final golfer to be selected for the team, battling hard for that 16th spot on the Franklin roster. However, once he got going there was no stopping him and his season turned around in the second half. He is currently averaging 43.5 over the first two matches and the Panther Coach is looking for him to do what he did the second half of last year.

Battling for the last two seats on the Franklin bus are three returners and a newbie. The three returning golfers vying for those seats are senior Vinny Spencer, junior Ayden Doyle and sophomore Leo Swahn. Looking to make his first appearance on the links wearing a Franklin golf polo is DJ Silverstein, an outstanding baseball player. Having signed to play for Bentley next year Silverstein knew the pressure was off and wanted to try something different his senior campaign and decided to give golf a try. Botelho noted that the senior baseball player had himself a very impressive tryout and could surprise people, much the way Rodrigues did last fall.

Franklin’s two matches so far this season have both been at the opposite end of the spectrum. Franklin destroyed Mansfield by 18 strokes but then fell to 2-time State Champion St Johns of Shrewsbury by 15. Although only two games in at press time, the Franklin Coach believes his top six golfers will be playing at the top of their game.

 “Although I believe that we are not as deep as last year, the top six will be better,” he said. “If they go out and play their games, while continuing to improve we could get to the State Finals this year.”