Westwood Senior Impresses on the Green

The Westwood High School boy’s golf team has gotten off to a shaky start with a 3-8 record, but things are starting to improve, especially for senior Brian Garland, who has impressed people during his time at .

“Brian has earned the respect of several of the coaches in the area over his four years participating in the golf program,” said head coach Paul Levesque. “His standout moments were helping the team to wins against Dumont High School in his sophomore year as well as his stroke play performance in the 18-hole league tournament at Rockleigh Golf Course. He opened the season this year against highly ranked Old Tappan High School and posted a six over par 41 to keep the match close.”

Garland’s current average is 43.8 and has led the team thus far in fairway hits, most pars and low average and greens in regulation.

Garland and the team have gotten frustrated but are keeping their heads up high and love golfing for Levesque.

“It's great,” said Garland. “He's always helping us out with our swings and giving us advice on how to play the game. He's real funny and is always joking around with us.”

Garland has had some nice moments this season. He shot a 39 at Darlington on April 18, a 40 against Rockleigh this week, a 40 at High Mountain on April 26 and a 41 at Old Tappan on April 4.

Garland has many facets to his game but points out one in particular that is important.

“I'd have to say the strongest part of my game is my ability to scramble,” said Garland. “I can recover from hitting a bad shot to save par or bogey most of the time.”

Levesque said that Brian also has another important quality about him and his golf game.

“The strongest part of Brian's game, in my humble opinion, is his competitive nature and his willingness to want to compete against the top players in Bergen County,” Levesque said. “Brian is almost always playing in the same group as the top players in North Jersey golf and seems to not be intimidated at all by the skilled players he competes against. He is often only a few strokes off of the scores posted by the county's top players.”

When Garland is not playing golf he runs track, plays soccer and enjoys playing basketball with friends after school and on weekends.