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07/21/2016 12:00 AMRyan Sember first stepped on the golf course at age nine when his grandfather introduced him and his brother to the sport. Since then, Ryan has devoted tons of time toward becoming a better golfer and, this spring, he was the best golfer for the Branford Hornets.
“I was a baseball player, but my grandpa started to take me and my brother to golf. I stopped baseball and started to golf because I was pretty good at it,” says Ryan. “We’d usually go out every weekend, but then it progressed to five times per week and working on my swing.”
Ryan earned medalist honors as the low scorer in a match several times for Branford, which posted a record of 14-6. After that, Ryan competed at both the SCC Championship and the Division II State Championship and had the Hornets’ best showing at both meets. Ryan shot an 81 for an 18-hole round at SCCs and then scored a 79 at states. Something else Ryan did in his recent junior season was lead Branford as one of the team’s captains.
“It was a great experience because it showed Coach [Jen] Kohut had a lot of faith in me, this being her first year as head coach. It showed a lot of respect for me since I was a junior,” Ryan says. “It was a good situation because I’ve been on the team all three years and we all had the same role of trying to get everyone better by telling everyone the courses and helping everyone out.”
Having already captained one team as a junior, Ryan will be a step ahead of the game next winter, when he will be a captain for the Hornets’ boys’ basketball squad.
“I’m very excited. I’m going to be co-captain with one of my great friends, too,” says Ryan, a point guard. “It helps a lot by knowing what responsibilities I have to uphold and be a team leader to help the team out in every way possible.”
Branford’s No. 2 golfer Liam Deane says that Ryan did an excellent job as a captain and feels that playing alongside Ryan made him a better golfer.
“Ryan has been a great captain because he always inspired and encouraged us to always play our absolute best,” says Liam, who was a sophomore this year. “Playing side by side with Ryan all season pushed both of us to be the best players we can be by always maintaining a healthy dose of competition, whether that be in a match or in practice.”
Ryan’s junior campaign culminated when he competed at the Division II State Championship at Timberlin Golf Course in Kensington. Ryan scored a 79 to finish ninth out of 101 golfers and he was just five strokes behind the first-place finisher.
“It was very important because last year I was tied for 12th [with an 82], so this year, I pushed myself for a better finish. It was also important to be the low person for my team as a captain to help us do better and finish in a better place,” says Ryan. “I like those matches more than the regular ones because they’re 18-hole matches, which I do a lot in the summer at tournaments. I have more of an advantage in things like how to pace myself and not get down after a bad shot.”
Ryan says that his irons and chipping are the strongest areas of his game. He works a lot on his putting to try and trim a few extra strokes off his scores.
“My irons and chipping, I mainly focus on those. It makes it a lot easier because, if I hit a bad drive, I have the ability to put it back in play and save par or even make birdie sometimes,” says Ryan. “I try not to three-putt because that’s what kills me. It’s the 10- to 12-footers that are almost there, but don’t go in. I need to excel on those and practice more.”
Ryan appreciates how he got into golf at a young age because of his grandfather and, when his time at Branford High School is finished, Ryan knows that it’s a sport he can keep playing for years.
“It’s really a huge advantage to start young to get your swing down and get the basics down, too, so you know what to do. That was really important because he was the one that introduced me to the game, along with my parents,” says Ryan. “Ever since I started playing, I liked it more and feel like I’m a better player. It’s something I want to do for the rest of my life.”