In the last few months, Florida’s been absolutely soaked by a seemingly endless downpour. With it often raining every day, forcing people to stay inside and cancelling sports. Although many sports have been affected by these daily storms, few have been affected more than Golf. The Boy’s and Girl’s golf team have been prevented from both practicing and competing for weeks due to the constant rain. This frustrating obstacle comes as Robinson Golf was gearing up to get into the bulk of the season.
“We’ve missed ten-ish practices this season,” fourth seed James Arong (’27) said. “It kind of bums us out, for anybody who cares about [their] state rankings that want to just boost their numbers. So does this hurt our state rankings.”
In a sport as technical as golf, having a coach present during practice can ensure player’s swings remain fluid and there aren’t any errors in their form. However, with so many school practices being cancelled, many students have been forced to do the majority of their practices alone.
“Every year, this time of year, we battle some rain,” Coach Kevin McCray said. “This year has been a little worse.”
This August recorded five inches of rainfall above average according to wtsp.com. This trend of heavy rainfall continued into September, with there “currently being a surplus of rain in Tampa” according to wtsp.com.
Hurricane season certainly isn’t helping the golf teams either. Both Hurricanes Helene and Milton have severely affected the boys and girl’s golf teams, with the severe storm surge and huge amounts of rainfall flooding and destroying the courses Robinson used to play and practice on.
“MacDill is closed, which is our home course,” McCray said. “We have no place to practice or play.”
With MacDill AFB being closed, Robinson no longer has access to their home course, preventing them from practicing regardless of the weather as of Oct. 1. the majority of other teams in the district have faced the same struggles as Robinson. However, now, as many teams return to practicing, Robinson’s stuck.
“[The weather] has done serious damage to the course we play on,” Co-Captain Sam Woodward (’25) said. “We have been helping clean up the course and removing debris after school in hopes to get back to practicing.”