FARMINGTON - At the John Hall Invitational in Farmington, the Grants High School golf team had one more chance to improve before district play begins on May 4.

Though Grants already has qualified for state, Head Coach Marty Zeller admitted that his Pirates had been in a bit of funk this spring, as individually, some scores looked great while others were best left off the scorecard.

Despite a third-place finish at the Leroy Gooch Tournament earlier this month, Zeller also quietly wondered when the Pirates would pull together and show District 4A teams that Grants would be a team to contend with.

At the John Hall Invite, though every player carded an over-par score, the Pirates nabbed second place in the six-team field, even through aerated greens that seemed to cause fits for all teams involved.

Even more impressive to Zeller is that three of his five players had the same score at the end of the one-day tourney and a fourth was only three strokes behind, a strong indicator that the Pirates are coming together.

“Our mindset is where it should be, and at the right time,” Zeller said. “And this group's goal is not just to do well at tournaments. It's definitely to win district and make a run for a state championship.”

Stephen and Denis Moleres and Jeffrey Trujillo all shot an 81 on the par-71 course while Tannin Cash shot an uncharacteristic 84 followed by Bobby Gabaldon at 103. Grants' overall score total was 12 strokes behind tourney winner Farmington, and had the greens been in better shape - Piedra Vista girls' Coach Paul Stewart described the back nine greens as “fuzzy and bumpy” - Grants might have come home with the top prize.

“Nothing rolled true on those greens,” he said. “You start missing three-footers and it just stays in your head. It's tough to keep your composure, as a high school player, in those situations, but we made it through.”

Now, it's on to the District 6-4A Tournament where Grants should be the prohibitive favorite at least considering the number of “legs” each of the 6-4A teams have earned. Grants leads the pack with eight followed by St. Pius, which has earned six. As for Belen and Volcano Vista, neither of which have qualified for state, Zeller said they are not really on the Pirates' radar.

“Belen has no chance (at the championship) and Volcano Vista has no chance,” Zeller said. “And I'm not saying that to fire them up, it's just been rebuilding years for both of those teams.”

What also bodes well for Grants and its 78.1 stroke average as a team, is that the district tourney takes place at Los Altos Golf Course in Albuquerque, a course Zeller calls one of the easiest in the state.

“There are a lot of trees, but we should only need our drivers and wedges,” Zeller said. “At Ruidoso we ran into a lot of woods and trees and players had to work their course management. At Los Altos, though, since there are a lot of trees, we can still get in trouble.”

To combat this, Zeller and crew will be playing as many rounds as possible before the tournament begins, and Coach “Z” is also preaching mental preparation as well. This will be directed at all of his players, but especially Gabaldon, who struggled at Farmington but will need to recover in time to help the Pirates at districts and at state.

“We were missing Bobby as our fifth during the fall, but Denis came in and we qualified in all six of our fall tournaments,” Zeller said. “And more than anything, it's the mental approach that Denis takes into practice that carries over into matches.”

“That's what we're working on for Bobby so he can help himself and help his team. He promised that he will be in the 70s for district or state or both, and he is definitely capable of doing it.”

Stay with the Beacon for a full recap of the District 6-4A Golf Tournament.