Elder High School is a prestigious midwest school known all around the country. Elder has great academics and is a brotherhood, but mostly it is known for athletics. Football takes most of the fans because of how good they have always been. Elder football is one of the most historic programs in the state of Ohio and is continuing to get better.

The Pit is widely known as one of the best places to watch a football game. The baseball and basketball teams are historic programs at Elder who are always competing for a state title. Other programs at Elder have been very underlooked, but have all been great programs. At Elder, the golf team is talked very little about, but the golf team is always good. It seems like no one has cared about the golf team, but that is starting to change because of recent success.

Elder Golf

Elder golf has been getting better and better every year and will continue to with a young team this year. The team is composed of 5-6 players. This year the A team has a makeup of two seniors, two juniors, and two freshman. So far this year the team has had some success, but also some bad rounds too, but that is golf. The team recently won the Bellbrook Best of the Southwest Invitational. They came in second at GCL rival Moeller’s Invitational in a very good field of teams. As far as GCL play goes, the Panthers are well behind the St. Xavier Bombers, but with two rounds to go they are looking to make a late push. Senior Cayse Morgan has a 2 shot lead with two rounds left for GCL Player of the Year.

Cayse Morgan

Elder Golf is led by senior captain Cayse Morgan. Cayse has been a very successful golfer throughout his time at Elder. He is one of, if not the best junior golfers in the Midwest. According to Junior Golf Scoreboard, Cayse is ranked in the top 75 of his class internationally.

Cayse committed to Xavier last school year to continue to play golf. Since his commitment he has been playing very good in tournaments. Cayse qualified for the U.S Junior Am which is the most prestigious junior event in golf. During that Cayse had an incredible back 9 during his first round and ended up playing good enough to make the round of 64 match play. Unfortunately, he lost in his first match in a very tough ending, but he looks to bounce back next year.

During his time at Elder Cayse has set an outstanding twelve 18-hole Elder individual course records, four 9-hole records, and two 36-hole records. While at Elder his success has been amazing. First, he made a state run in his freshman year with the team. Then, sophomore year Cayse had a great season, but unfortunately had a bad finish. Cayse was still GCL Player of the Year during his sophomore year.

Next, Cayse in his junior year had his best season of all. Cayse won the GCL Player of the Year again and he medaled 6 times throughout the course of the season. Cayse set a new Elder 18-hole record with a 65 during the Sectional tournament at Miami Whitewater Golf Course.

After this great score he continued to play well, shooting 68 at districts to medal and qualify for the state tournament. At the state tournament, Cayse shot a 1 over 72 on day 1 and a 70 on day 2 to put himself at even par. This score would get him 3rd place and the best finish out of any underclassman. Last, Cayse during his senior year campaign has already won a couple times and has led his team to some top finishes in some of the best tournaments around. He already has the 9-hole average record from last year with a 35.6, but he is almost beating that by a shot this year with an average of 34.7 this year. Cayse is currently leading the GCL individually at 5 under total and has a 1 shot lead heading into the tournament. Cayse will be looking to lead his team back upstate and ultimately win the state championship. His teammate Jack Voss said this about Cayse “Every round we can trust him to have an amazing round, and it makes me feel more comfortable on the course knowing that. Cayse has helped guide me and motivate me throughout my time on the varsity golf team especially during practice he is always helping us get better.” Hearing this from Jack can be proven true because of our improvement as a team throughout the year. When we all started practicing as a team, we would do drills, and Cayse would not let us leave until we complete them. There is no doubt that Cayse is one of the best golfers and people I have ever met. Cayse will continue to have a good year and hopefully he has some fun while he is at it too.

Jack Voss

Jack is a junior who has played varsity golf for 2 years while at Elder. Jack said he does not know exactly when he started playing golf, but around the age of 5 he guessed. Jack has been a huge part of the varsity squad so far this year. He helped the team to a 2nd place finish with a 77 and helped lead the team to a win at the Bellbrook Best of the Southwest Invitational with an even par 71. This score got him 3rd place Jack Voss celebrates his hole-in-one on the third hole at Heatherwoode. individually behind his

teammate who came in 1st Cayse Morgan. This was the best round of Jack’s young life he said, but it’s not even his best memory of the year. This year he made a hole in one at Heatherwoode golf club hole #3 in a match versus Springboro. Jack is currently averaging 39.4 on the year with a couple bad rounds, good rounds, and a couple great rounds. I asked Jack what the biggest takeaway he has gotten from Elder golf and he said “Most of the time in golf you are playing for yourself, but in high school you’re with a team and that motivates me to play better because these are my brothers and I want to help the team out. I have made many great friends throughout my time on the team, and I won’t ever forget that.” Undoubtedly, Jack loves this golf team and will do anything to help them be their best. He is a great leader and still is not even a senior.

Charlie Smith

I want to take away from the A team now and show some spotlight on the B team and that is with Charlie Smith. Charlie has shown some of the greatest improvement you can see. Charlie said he started playing at the age of 15 (he is currently 17). During his freshman year on JV Charlie was not very good and had the usual struggles he ended up averaging a 48.6 on 9 holes. Sophomore year he had a very disappointing tryout with hopes for the varsity team, but he did not let that get to his head. Charlie had a solid year on JV with an average of 42.5. He improved by 6 strokes on 9 holes in one year. During the tryouts this year Charlie was good enough to make the team as the 7th best player out of 13 who tried out. Charlie started off the year with an incredible 73. He has not been able to match a score like that since but has still put up some great scores to help his team. I asked Charlie about his improvement through the years, and he said “Hard work and dedication is what has gotten me to this point, and it’s really cool to see myself beat players who have been playing for so much longer than me. It’s also great to make my parents proud.” Charlie has already improved heavily and is looking to get much better next year. I then asked Charlie what the biggest takeaway he has received from Elder golf and he responded “The biggest takeaway from being on the golf team is how nice of courses we get to play. We get to play courses some will never have the chance to play. While I’m playing these courses I just live in the moment and don’t even focus on golf.” Charlie clearly loves the game of golf and Elder, hopefully he can finish strong this year and ultimately be a key player for the team next year.

The Future

The team is about two-thirds through the season so far. The A team has the GCl tournament, sectionals, districts, and then hopefully the state championship until their short season is over. If you would like to follow along click the link here, https://www.ehsports.com/team/schedule/2024/boys/varsity/golf/ the stats can be found here, https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.prepconnectweb.com/Elder_High_School_09012024_2024_cumulative_ALL_9-1.pdf . Hopefully the golf team can finish strong and have a successful season.