When asked about the upcoming season, MHS boys golf Greg Duncan said the following.
“This year is going to be an exciting year for Bomber golf.”
How and what kind of exciting remains to be seen.
The 2026 team enters with 16 players, but no seniors. That leaves juniors stepping up into different roles and freshmen stepping in.
Two players return from last season with both playing in every varsity match for MHS.
Junior Luke Chapla was a sectional qualifier a year ago, while sophomore Eli Griffth narrowly missed out advancing, losing out in a regional playoff.
Moving up are juniors Sam Helling and Kollin Knupp, who Duncan noted were the top two JV players a year ago.
Rounding out the varsity lineup will be a pair of freshmen.
Cohen Anderson, son of MHS boys basketball coach Jeremy Anderson and Ryker Allensworth played their way onto the varsity lineup.
“Both have really good swings and have a lot of potential,” said Duncan. “I think the big thing with them is just getting them used to playing varsity golf and not playing with their buddies on the course, and playing with different people.”
Duncan noted that during the summer, the coaches worked with the players on some of the finer points of the sports.
“We spent a lot of time in the summer time working on short game and irons, especially when their time was with me and the coaches during our contact days,” said Duncan. “Playing nine holes from 100 yards in or playing it from 125 or 150. We’ll pick a different distance every day and play something different.”
“I know they’re going out and playing with their friends, so they’re hitting their driver,” he added. “They’re playing the whole golf hole. It gives me a chance to work on and fine tune the short game a little bit. Chipping and putting around greens.”
“Hitting greens from 125 yards out is really a key,” said Duncan. “If you can do that, and can do it well, you’ll be successful nine time out of 10.”
Junior Nolan Schmidt, sophomores Lauren Young and Logan Lambert, along with freshmen Brady DeWeese and Owen Leinbach currently top the list at the JV level.
Macomb is a relative island as far as boys golf as it is a Class 2A school, surrounded by Class 1A squads.
“We’re kind of out here in the middle of nowhere,” said Duncan. “We’re a 2A school, so we face a lot of teams from the Peoria area. The Mortons, the Metamoras, the Peoria Notre Dames, all those schools are perennial golf powers.”
“We like to get over that way,” he added. “A lot of our schedule is based in that direction to be perfectly honest. We like to see them and we like to see them multiple times so we can see how we are, how we compare early on and then what we need to do to try and catch them and maybe make a postseason run after that sprint of a season gets winding down.”
Duncan stated that the only time the Bombers battle other Prairieland Conference schools is at the conference tournament.
The seasons and players may change, but the goals for Duncan and the Bombers remain the same, which is to make an effort to reach the Class 2A state finals.
“It all about the timing honestly with golf,” said Duncan. “If you get hot at the right time and you get 3-4 kids playing good at the right time, you can make a run in the postseason.”
“It’s programming yourself and building your season towards that final two weeks of the year where you’re playing your best golf,” he added.
With a different lineup in play, Duncan stated that managing expectations will 25%
be important.
“I think the big key for our kids is going to be, early on, is tempering their expectations as to what they think is going to happen and keeping them mentally sharp,” said Duncan. “We have a lot of kids with a lot of inexperience who believe they can shoot good numbers, which is awesome.”
“But at the same time, playing golf with your buddies is different than playing with three different kids with three different uniforms on.”
He is pushing his players to build a good foundation so they can be strong at the end of the year.
“We don’t lose, we always learn,” said Duncan. “We learn what we can do better and how we can cut 5-6 strokes off a round. If we learn to keep our wits and composure about us, we’re going to say a stroke or two on some holes where we struggle. That’s going to be big.”
“Golf is a game of who can be imperfect the best,” he added. “It’s a case of who can manage their worst the best.”
“If they can manage their worst the best and then play some really good holes, they’re going to survive and they’re going to do well,” Duncan said. “But if they let that bad situation continue
