Comet golfers riding high as they enter the stretch run

From 2017-2020, Genoa golfers won four consecutive Northern Buckeye Conference (NBC) titles.
If this year’s team continues on its trend, the Comets could very well win another league championship.
Genoa had a good showing at the conference’s first Shootout at Sugar Creek Golf Course, finishing with a 160 to edge Lake, which shot a 163. Senior Jake Ewersen, the reigning conference Player of the Year and a district qualifier last season, shot a 38, followed by Caleb Klatt, who shot a 40, and Jon Huston, Isaac Ewersen and Cole Tester, all of whom shot 41s.
The other varsity golfers are Alex Large and the combination of Tester and Dylan Hudson, who typically fight it out for the No. 6 spot.
This season, the Comets have competed at four major invitationals, most notably the Knight Invite, which featured some of the best Northwest Ohio has to offer, like St. John’s, St. Francis, Anthony Wayne and Perrysburg, among others. Genoa finished ninth in the 20-team field with a 337 at Heather Downs Country Club. Huston and Jake Ewersen both shot 83s, Isaac Ewersen finished with an 84 and Klatt had an 87.
“We had higher expectations,” said Genoa coach Cody McPherson. “There were a lot of bigger teams there, and we knew that it would benefit us to play there. We wanted to be in the 320s, and we shot a 337 — not an awful score, but not where we wanted to be as a team.”
Since that Aug. 12 tournament, the Comets have beaten Lake and Fremont Ross in duals and won the NBC Shootout.
One day before the Knight Invite, Genoa took fourth (out of 12 teams) at the GenoaBank Tom Pickerel Invite, shooting a 349 at Maumee Bay State Park Golf Course, the Comets’ home course. Huston shot an 84, followed by Klatt (87) and Large and Isaac Ewersen, who both shot 89s.
“We did play well; we pride ourselves on playing well at Maumee Bay,” said McPherson, now in his second season as the varsity golf coach. “We think it’s an advantage for us to play at such a tough course.”
Genoa also won the Fostoria Invite at Lakeland Golf Club and took seventh (out of 21 teams) at the Port Clinton Golf Classic at the Catawba Island Club.
Is Jake Ewersen the Comets’ bona fide No. 1?
“I think that’s still to be determined,” McPherson said. “Caleb has worked his tail off. Jake is our senior – I expect him to have the best season, (but) we have some guys who are pushing him.
“I like that internal competition every day on the range or at the chipping green or the putting green,” he said. “We’re going to end every session with some type of competition. I just believe that competition makes us better.
“Jake’s biggest competitor is Jon Huston, which is great because they get to compete every day. …When I put the two of them together, it just becomes different,” McPherson said. “Competition is huge in all of athletics — when you compete with someone that you know can beat you, it makes you better; you’re trying to beat the other person every time. We try to mix it up, we try to make things interesting for them.”
McPherson is a 2006 graduate of Lake and a 2010 graduate of Bluffton University, where he played baseball. He played baseball for legendary coach Greg Wilker in high school and was an assistant to another legend, Mark Nell, the former baseball coach at Anthony Wayne.
“That was a privilege and it’s something I’ll take with me,” said McPherson, who coached the Genoa JV golf team for three years before being promoted. “Foundation-wise, they’re both rock solid.”
McPherson works as the director of curriculum and instruction for Genoa Area Local Schools. It is his fifth year working for the district. He spent eight years teaching social studies to sixth graders at Anthony Wayne Junior High before coming to Genoa.
McPherson, who also coached football at Anthony Wayne with Andy Brungard and Craig Smith, didn’t think he’d be the golf coach when he came to Genoa.
“Every sport is unique. I played college baseball, I’m not a golf expert. For example, we have a player that’s going to be tardy on Monday because he’s going to see a swing coach,” said McPherson. “There are people who know more about golf than I do. I’m trying to put them in the right position to get better. They’ve jumped on that. We have that mutual respect; we’re trying to get better at our craft. I love it; it’s been an amazing opportunity that (Genoa athletic director) Matt Routson offered to me, and we’re running with it.
“One of the things that we harp on constantly is, if it’s your worst day, remember that you only have so many months to play golf,” he said. “It’s the idea that ‘I’m blessed to be here; it’s a beautiful day to play golf with my friends,’ and that’s important.
“We have good young men. Regardless of their golfing ability, we have really good young men in the program, and that’s what I’m going to be most excited about in the years to come,” he said.