When it came to crunch time, Alex Robert was as consistent as they come.
The Lewiston sophomore shot back-to-back rounds in the low-80s in the Class A team championships (82) and the Class A individual championships (81).
He was the low scorer for the Blue Devils in the team championship, as well, helping the Blue Devils to an 11th-place finish, and he placed 12th at the individual championships.
“This year, I was a lot more consistent than last year, especially at the state championship and individual championship,” Robert said. “I shot within two strokes in all (three) rounds which is pretty weird. It was all within one stroke of each other. It’s a big difference from last year.”
He shot a 81 at the individual qualifier, as well.
The consistency started with a solid regular season during which his nine-hole scoring average was just a shade over 40.
“I went through his matches this year and his stroke average was just a hair over 40,” Lewiston coach Tom LeBlond said. “I would put it 40-point something, I forget exactly what it was, but it was around 40. That’s throwing in one bad round where he had a bad round when we played at Brunswick Country Club. I think he had a 48-49, which was uncharacteristic. Take that round out and you know it’s a sub-40 average.”
LeBlond also gave Robert the team’s coach’s award this season.
Robert said as a freshman it was nerve-wracking being on a new team with new players. He said playing plenty of golf in the summer and working at Martindale helped him to prepare for this high school season.
Leblond said Robert shaved at least two or three shots from his freshmen year.
“He has the bug, he loves playing golf,” LeBlond said. “He loves it so much that he wants to get better. Certainly he made big strides this year and he wants to continue to get better. At the same time, he’s having fun playing the game.”
Finishing outside the top ten at the individual tournament gives him something to shoot for the next two seasons.
“I am going to work to work toward getting inside the (top 10) next year,” Robert said. “Looking back, I see a lot of shots I wish that I could have back because if I could have a couple of shots back, it could have been much different. That comes with the game of golf and there’s always something to improve for next year.”
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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