The Mathews High School golf team had its first match on Tuesday, Aug. 8, at the Piankatank River Golf Course, Hartfield.

The team currently has eight members—senior Sam Carmine, sophomores Cole Huff, Zach Dehoux, Chase Lewis, Matt Jenkins and Hayden Downs, and eighth graders Colton Barrick and Brandon Gandee.

The team faced Northumberland for its first match, in which every golfer participates in nine holes, and the lowest four scores on the team are counted towards the team total. Low scorer for Mathews was Cole Huff with 51 strokes. He was followed by Chase Lewis who had 52, Zach Dehoux who had 55, and Matt Jenkins who had 59. This gave the team a final score of 217 strokes. However, score was not low enough to get the win, compared to Northumberland’s 182 strokes.

While Mathews did not win, the team did perform 11 strokes better than in its first match from the previous season. Coach James Hutcheson said that he is very optimistic about his team’s prospects thi...