Golf on the surface might not be intriguing for most. The truth is these people don’t know the half of it. Golf is a highly competitive sport with satisfying victories and heartbreaking losses. Here at FDR High School we do have a Golf team. It may come as a surprise to many, but it has been here longer than you may think. Coach Marc Cinamon has been coaching Golf since 2009, roughly 13 years.

Last year, the Golf team played in the spring, one of the few sports played during the pandemic last year. Now that a new season is upon us, this year they are back and ready to come out swinging. However, there will be changes this year, with the lifting of some Covid 19 restrictions. Athletes will no longer need to wear masks for outside activities.  Regarding the PSAL not requiring masks anymore, Cinamon stated, “It’s just more of a mental thing than a physical thing. Getting back a sense of normalcy for the students. It shouldn’t really effect how the team performs physically, since it’s not a high intensity sport. But, mentally with the players having that freedom of shedding the mask, it could have a positive impact on their overall attitude, which could improve their performance.”  Golf is an outside sport, so it will be nice to get the kids back out and competing, claimed Coach Cinamon. When I asked about what a typical day on the golf team was like, Coach Cinamon spoke to me about going outside at the driving range near the Aviator Sports Complex for some practice shots. If it’s raining outside, the team will stay warm and dry and make the most out of their foam balls and putting machines. They will also use their nets and practice their shots indoors. The team even has a golf simulator. The golf simulator is like a golf video game indoors which simulates you hitting the ball on an actual golf course, but you’re actually just inside, hitting a screen. Man that would be fun to try out!

As the season is upon us, Coach Cinamon is looking forward to seeing how much his golfers have progressed, and how good they will be this year. The two returning players are sophomore, Harry Mcsween, and junior, Ruizhe Cheng, who also goes by Aiden. Coach Cinamon is very excited to see these players come back.

Coach Cinamon wanted to coach golf, so city kids could get exposed to it. Cougars can get exposed to what it is like to play and dabble in the sport. City kids don’t know golf life like suburban kids, so it was a chance for Cinamon to give them that experience. As I was nearing the end of this interview with the Golf coach, I thought to myself what is one thing everybody who reads this article should know about golf that is not really prominent in the media today. I asked coach Cinamon, and right away, he said that golf is very expensive because of all the equipment and course fees.  He said this is because in golf, they don’t only use one golf club to hit the ball. Different clubs serve different purposes in different golf situations. It is not like other sports as there are lots of factors that go into the game. According to Coach Cinamon,“Golf is a very difficult sport, it takes many hours of practice and hard work, but once you start, the game gets addictive.” Sounds like we are lucky to have an addict coaching.