MCC golf: Richland’s Underwood returns to defend his crowns

Carl Underwood is no stranger to playing with a target on his back.

The Richland High School senior golfer led Richland to the state tournament his sophomore season by winning the district championship. He followed that up in his junior campaign by winning Mid-Columbia Conference Player of the Year honors, a second district championship, and ultimately captured the Class 4A state title at Meadow Springs Country Club. He was an easy selection for the Herald’s All-Area Boys Player of the Year.

Now for Underwood, it seems like everyone is gunning for him.

“There are kids that come up to me and say they’re going to practice hard just so they can beat me,” he said. “It makes you feel good, but it also makes you want to work even harder so they can’t beat me.”

A lot of his top competitors fulfilled that wish in the first week of the season at the Pasco Invite, as Underwood shot a 13-over 85 to tie for 17th at Sun Willows; a humbling experience to be sure.

“You shoot 85 and there’s no pressure on you for the rest of the season, for the next couple months at least,” Underwood said. “Getting it out of the way at the first tournament, it was great, and also just firing back with a couple of nice rounds was good.”

And fire back he did.

The following week, Underwood and Chiawana’s Clayton Whitby tied for the medalist at the first MCC golf pod at Tri-City Country Club, and Underwood shot a 2-under 70 to win the pod at Canyon Lakes the following week. Now halfway through the six-match conference season, Underwood looks well on his way to defending his league points championship, with a 21 1/2 -point lead over the field.

Playing free and easy seems to fit Underwood’s demeanor. He approaches the game the same way he does his season expectations, saying he’d love to defend his league, district and state titles, but that it’s no skin off his nose if he comes up short.

“Heading into state, it’d be great to go back-to-back, but there’s so much competition now with the people on the west side,” Underwood said. “It’d be awesome to win back-to-back, but if I don’t, it’s no big deal. I’m just going to go out and try my best.”

Assuming Underwood makes his fourth trip to state this season — begins May 23 at MeadowWood in Spokane — he’ll be battle-tested when he gets there. The MCC is deep this year, with players like Whitby, Walla Walla’s Alex Johanson, Hanford’s Gabe Cach and a host of Kamiakin Braves pushing or even beating Underwood every week.

Guys like Southridge’s Riley White, who sits in a close second in the 3A standings behind Kamiakin’s Bolton Dauenhauer, seem motivated by the chance to knock off a state champ. During one of the early-season tournaments, Underwood asked White what he had done over the off-season to improve his short game so much, to which White replied, “Just trying to beat you.”

As the season wears on, and the rust from a cold, snowy winter shakes off, Underwood hopes to separate himself from his competition a bit, a task he says can be accomplished by dedicating time to practicing around the greens.

“I’m working really hard right now,” he said. “It’s all about repetition.”

Underwood and the rest of the MCC’s players will get some time to workshop their games as there are no league tournaments during this week’s spring break and the following week. The fourth MCC pod is April 17 at Horn Rapids in Richland.

This story was originally published April 1, 2017 at 7:28 PM with the headline "MCC golf: Richland’s Underwood returns to defend his crowns."