Rainy season puts golf squad preparations on hold as FVA season awaits

Despite unprecedented challenges, the boys golf team continues to persevere. In the height of training season, Oshkosh has been hit with a wave of rain and thunderstorms. What may bring future flowers also prohibits the team from practicing to its full potential.

Coach Nick Brandl knows the difficulties they face due to unfavorable weather.

“This is the middle of our third week and we’ve had three days, so evaluating and making the roster decisions is tough,” he said. “I went out to see our home course, the Oshkosh Country Club, and two of the holes are underwater.”

Junior Tyler Mellgren believes the weather takes away an advantage they could have had over their opponents.

“I think the team’s biggest challenge has been availability at our home course,” he said. “We’re not able to practice out there as much as we can and, with the weather currently, the country club has not yet opened. So having a home course advantage is something we just don’t have this year.”

Junior Tyler Moderson echoes this statement but believes that even though other schools may have more resources, the team can still fight through.

“We haven’t been able to get out and practice and some other schools in our conference have simulators in their school and we just don’t have those resources,” he said. “We just need to shoot lower scores and cut out extra strokes, and I think we will be good.”

However, Brandl applauds team members for their enjoyment of the sport, and the ability to still work hard through adversity.

“We have a lot of young golfers who are just kids that like to play golf,” he said. “It’s so great for a coach that sometimes if you tell them practice is cancelled they still go out and play somewhere.”

Sophomore Lincoln Houle is one of these golfers who enjoys the sport, and believes it is a great way to connect with some of his friends.

“I really enjoy playing golf throughout the year, even if it is just simulators in the winter, or on the course in the summer,” he said. “I just like to go out and play with my friends and have a fun time while playing golf.”

Brandl also believes that playing on their own is essential to players’ development, tying in to overcoming adversity.

“Coaches can’t be at every shot and I tell them I’m not going to tell you what to do,” he said. “I’ll give you three options and you have to decide and hopefully they learn something.”

While the coaches may not be able to assist on every hole, Moderson believes they help motivate the team and improve their mentality.

“Our coaches push us at practice, even if the situations look difficult, to motivate us this season,” he said. “They have been helping us get ready for the season and improve our mentality.”

Mellgren believes that the mental side of golf is important and is necessary to stay up to par throughout the season.

“It’s difficult to stay consistent throughout the season because there’s a lot that can go wrong every round because golf is a game of millimeters," he said. “So just trying to stay in the right headspace is a big part of staying consistent and making sure small mistakes don’t become big mistakes.”

Houle believes that the team can perform well if they can be mentally strong and battle through challenges.

“Even though we have not been able to practice a lot, I think we can still do good,” he said. “When we are locked in and stay focused, we end up doing pretty good and score low, so I think if we do that we can win.”

Moderson resonates with this statement, and hopes the team can find success in meets this season.

“Our main goal for this season is to get a conference win because the last couple of years we haven’t gotten a win and have been 0-9 in conference,” he said.

Mellgren has clear goals for the upcoming campaign.

“We’d like to just get some good scores in and some good competition with other schools in the FVA and also do good at invites,” he said.

Golf is a sport many can do well past their athletic primes, and Brandl hopes that current golfers can enjoy the activity for years to come.

“You look at other sports you don’t see many people playing baseball at 80 or 90 but we come across golfers that age all the time” Brandl said. “It’s a lifelong sport and while, yes, we are going to be in competitions and want to win, when it comes down to it, once you graduate you can play golf your entire life.”

by Mason Callahan

Published April 27, 2026

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue VII