WOOD RIVER - Marquette Catholic senior golfer William Roderfeld is off to a great start this season. In his first two tournaments of the year, shooting a 78 in last Monday's East Alton-Wood River Hickory Stick Invitational, and following up with a 77 in the small school division of the Madison County Tournament, both held at Belk Park Golf Course in Wood River.
The Explorers finished third in the Hickory Stick and won the small school crown in the Madison County meet, both great team results. Roderfeld thought he didn't play badly overall as well.
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"Overall, it wasn't bad," Roderfeld said in a post-round interview. "I know I left shots out there and that, but overall, it wasn't bad. It was pretty good."
As with many of the other golfers and coaches, Roderfeld is very pleased to be able to get out and compete again, even with the COVID-19 Pandemic and the restrictions place upon many sports by the Illinois High School Association because of the circumstances.
"Yes, it's nice we're actually having a season," Roderfeld said, "especially with it being my senior year and that, where I'm trying to get good scores and that. I'm trying to play golf in college."
Roderfeld currently has is sights set on Missouri S&T in Rolla, and hopes to play golf there after graduating from Marquette. He's feeling very good about his play after the season's first two tournaments.
"Right now, the swing's not bad and that," Roderfeld said. "Overall, I'm striking the ball well. It's just a little shot here and there, I'm not having enough of those, and that kind of causes me to have a little bit of higher rounds. But overall, they're not bad."
Roderfeld has set some lofty goals for both himself and the Explorers for the 2020 season, and all are very attainable as well.
"For myself and that, I'm wanting to hopefully be able to do well in that," Roderfeld said, "and try to be in the mid to low 70s and that. And then, overall as a team, I'm hoping that we can make it further, if we're doing tournaments like this, where we're taking four scores of being in the low 300s."
