It wasn’t something that had been on his radar, but a few years ago after driving past Thompson Speedway with his grandparents, Tyler Friend noticed a driving range and wanted to find out more about it. The Bay Path athlete checked out the range, started to enjoy the time he spent there, and eventually purchased his own golf clubs.

“Originally I was just at the driving range hitting balls,” he said. “I enjoy trying new things, this was fun and I was getting into it.”

When they were freshmen, he and his friend Andrew Lashua tried out for Bay Path’s golf team. The duo made the junior varsity squad and as Friend continued to put up good numbers, he was elevated to the varsity team.

“It was definitely a surprise to me, but I felt that I was capable of playing good on this level,” Friend said. “My first varsity match I shot a 44 and while not that good to today’s standards, I was very happy with the score as a freshman.”

While playing as a freshman, Friend continued to learn about the game and fell in love with the sport. Following that season, he spent a good portion of his summer on the golf course looking to better his scores.

“Tyler loves the game of golf, which is always a plus,” Bay Path Coach Mike White said. “He has improved his game and is our best player by far. Last year he shot in the 37-38 range, one or two over par which is pretty good for a high school athlete that hasn’t really played the game all that much.”

Throughout the summer Friend continued to work on his game and found that he was becoming increasingly consistent with his shooting. Once he came to the realization that his game was continuing to evolve, he made the decision to work even harder to improve. Friend started to focus on just going out and getting the ball down the fairways and onto the greens. He learned to take low risk shots to bring his game to the next level.

As he got ready to enter his junior campaign, Friend found that he had been named a captain and needed to take more responsibility with the Minutemen golfers.

“As a captain, I need to make sure that the team is confident every time that we take to the course and we all play well together as a team,” Friend said. “This summer a lot of us have been getting together and working on our games for the upcoming season.”

Friend noted that he and his teammates will need to stay consistent throughout the season. In the past, the team had had a few golfers posting lower scores, but others put up higher numbers, which hurt the team’s overall games. This year the Bay Path golfers are looking to all be on the same page and put some good rounds together as a team.

When it comes to his personal game, Friend hopes that he can break par and continue to do that throughout the rest of the year. Coach White is on the same page as his top golfer.

“His chipping and putting have improved since he first began playing on the team while his driving is already great,” the coach said. “I am looking for him to hit par this season and if he can do that, it should help the team out a lot.”

In addition to watching his game improve to help the team, the junior golfer would like to eventually win a tournament at some point. Last year at the Central Mass Vocational State Championship, Friend finished fifth and he wants to improve upon that finish this year.

“Golf sparked something inside of me and I want to see how far it can take me,” Friend said.