On Thursday (September 24, 2020), the DePaul Prep mens golf team lost to Mount Carmel 164 to 170 at Jackson Park Golf Course.
Assistant golf coach and DePaul College Prep history teacher Steve Cadwallader lead a young Rams squad against Mount Carmel. Playing for the Rams were freshman Jack Kennedy (Queen of Angels), freshman Wyatt Carlson (Chicago City Day School/Coonley), sophomore Alex Johnson (St. Benedict), sophomore Emmitt Miller (St. Alphonsus), sophomore Aiden Williams (Nettelhorst) and senior Colon Pilcher (St. Alphonsus).
The nine-hole match took the best four scores of the six Rams playing. Fourteen year-old freshman phenom Wyatt Carlson lead the Rams with a four over 39. Emmitt Miller shot 42, Alex Johnson 44, Colin Pilcher 45 and Aiden Williams 49.
Mount Carmel’s junior Ahmad Raoul shot a three over 38 and lead the Caravan to victory.
“We decided to start a golf program because people at one of the very first open houses . . . talked about their desire to play golf in high school. I decided right then and there that DePaul Prep needed to start a golf program so families who wanted to play golf could do so at DePaul Prep,” DePaul Prep Athletic Director Patrick Mahoney told me.
“Combine that with a couple of parents who were great in helping us find courses and spreading the word to other families and the ball started rolling. And we could not have done it without Justin Lane who was a soccer coach. He really wanted to coach golf,” Mahoney continued.
School leadership got on board quickly.
“[DePaul College Prep] President Mary Dempsey, Principal Megan Stanton Anderson and Lisa Pilcher, Director of Finance and Operations, were extremely generous in talking through starting a golf program and allowing us to budget for it and get it off the ground.
DePaul Prep also has a woman’s golf team. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get out to any of their matches. I hope to get to one this week.
The men’s golf team has had mixed results in their inaugural season: wins against Fenwick and De La Salle, losses against Marmian, Loyola and now Mount Carmel, fifth out of six at Montini’s tournament and a postponed match against St. Laurence.
The inaugural Ram Invitational at Ridgemoor CC which teed off Saturday (Sept 26th) included Fenwick, Mount Carmel and St. Ignatius. I couldn’t make it out to Ridgemoor so I will have to fill you in later on that.
As for the photos . . .
This was my first-time shooting golf and it shows. Frankly, these photos are crap. The exposure is way off. The color looks funny. Jack Kennedy’s face is so washed out. Not my finest work; not even good. I worried more about composition than making properly exposed photos. If people were not waiting for these photos, I would not publish them.
I want to thank Sun-Times and Max Preps photographer Kirsten Stickney (Twitter: @KirstenStickney, Instragram: KirstenStickneyPhotography) for encouraging me to shoot golf. She gently nudged me out of my comfort zone. Clearly, these photos show just how much I have to learn about photography. When I start making good photos of golf, I will have Kirsten thank for making me a better photographer.
Golf is challenging to photograph. It is hard to get good photos of golfers wearing hats and always looking down. I would like to express my appreciation to Alex Johnson and Jack Kennedy for not wearing caps.
However, my main concern was the loud shutter on my Canon DSLRs. The loud shutter noise during a golfer’s swing is an unacceptable distraction. Consequently, I got a lot shots of the golfers putting.
The late afternoon sun casts shadows. Many of the teeing grounds were backlit to the sun which made for dark foregrounds and shadowed faces. I pushed the ISO higher than I would have liked for daytime.
Shutter speed was an adventure. As one might imagine golf clubs and golf balls are moving pretty fast. I could not set the shutter speed as high as I wanted.
I am certain to get out to shoot more golf matches in the future—hopefully the CCL and GCAC tournaments this week.
