Last season it looked as though the Scarsdale golf team was going to win its first sectional title. Up three strokes entering the final hole, the Raiders couldn't hold on to their lead and Brewster claimed the team championship at Centennial Golf Course.
In the three years since Section 1 began the team title the Raiders placed third the first two seasons and second last year.
After finishing 16-1 last season and winning the league title for the 11th straight year, Scarsdale now turns it focus on trying to capture its first team sectional title.
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"Winning the section is our biggest goal," Scarsdale coach Andy Verboys said. "I sat down my seniors who I've had since they were freshmen and we talked about trying to attain that goal. This is one of our strongest teams, and we have a lot of quality players."
Scarsdale returns plenty of talent as seven of the 14 players on the team are seniors. The four co-captains – Robert Gelber, David Spiro, Peter Friedman and Jake Nathan – were named all-league last season.
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In order to accomplish its goal of winning a sectional title, Scarsdale will be trying to claim the top seed in the sectionals, in order to have home-course advantage.
"We have so many quality players I try to rotate the kids in and out in order to make them eligible for the state tournament," Verboys said. "In order to do that, sometime I need to pull the best golfers out and that lowers our team aggregate. This year we're going for that top seed."
The Raiders next goal will be to try and qualify some of their golfers for the state meet at Cornell University. It's been five years since a Raider qualified for states.
The top 70 players in the section qualify to play in the individual sectional tournament. Half the field that is within 10 strokes qualify for the second round, and the top nine players in the section move on to the state tournament. But unlike in past seasons, this year the Scarsdale Country Club will be hosting the first round of the individual sectional championships.
"I hope this is the year Scarsdale gets back to sending kids to the state tournament," Verboys said. "Hosting the first round can only help. Sometimes you can lose three or four strokes playing the first round at the northern course and that's tough to make up. Hopefully this is the year we have some success at sectionals."
