It may only be the last full week of March, but the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ golf team already has three regular-season matches in the books.
In addition to the weather inevitably warming up as the season progresses for this elite program, while it will replace four seniors from its heavily accomplished Class of 2024,
Bridgewater-Raritan will strive to gain valuable experience and be a trophy contender again in 2025.
The Panthers’ swift improvement was showcased on Thursday afternoon against Hunterdon Central Regional High School served as a clear reminder and justification for its ranking among New Jersey’s best girls’ golf squads.
Four-time reigning Skyland Conference Delaware Division champion and New Jersey’s ninth-ranked squad in Bridgewater-Raritan (2-1, 2-0) not only remained undefeated to begin division play after rolling to a 191-234 victory against Hunterdon Central (0-1, 0-1) Thursday, March 27, at the Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater.
The Panthers’ season-best score of 191 was a whopping 28-stroke improvement from their first victory of the season just 24 hours earlier on the same course: a 219-233 triumph over division rival North Hunterdon Regional High School on Wednesday, March 26.
“I feel like we had better scores today, and the weather was nice too,” explained Bridgewater-
Raritan sophomore Yashvi Shah, who led all golfers on Thursday afternoon with a four-over-par 40 on the nine holes at Bridgewater-Raritan's home course. “Individually, I definitely had a rough start, but I calmed myself and played my own game.”
“It was really cold yesterday, but the weather helped today, and I feel like we just had fun out there.”
Simran Agarwala: Bridgewater Raritan's’ lone member of the Class of 2025 finished second overall with a score of 46. Her improvement of a whopping 11 strokes from her performance in Wednesday's victory over North Hunterdon was the Panthers’ largest improvement from just 24 hours ago.
Junior Ciara Decarlo collected a score of 52 for Bridgewater-Raritan, and much to the delight of head coach Steve Kline, junior Riya Desai rounded out her team’s scoring results with a score of 53 in her first match.
“It’s early in the year, and the conditions are really tough,” said Kline, who has been in charge of Bridgewater-Raritan’s program since 2016. “This course is tough, but all of our girls improved. It was about being mentally tough, figuring it out, and not being too hard on yourself from the day before. If you can play relatively well in this weather, you’re going to be okay when the weather starts to turn.”
“Warm weather and better playing conditions are coming.”