As you hear the crack of the bat and see the baseball soar across the field, you watch the player drop his bat. However, rather than sprint to the base, they saunter slowly towards where the ball has fallen with the other competitors, much similar to what golfers do.
This mixture of sports may seem strange, but it has become popular among students, especially with the juniors of AHS.
The sport being played is “bolf,” a combination of baseball and golf. Players hit a ball to certain locations with the object of the game being to finish with the least amount of hits possible. After the initial hit, players start wherever their ball lands.
There are no restrictions on how many holes there are, but the person with the least amount of total strokes at the end wins.
If you whiff the ball,meaning you don’t touch it at all when swinging the bat, then it doesn’t count as stroke.
“We got the idea when junior Luke Lundy and I were just joking around one day when we were playing,” junior Nolan Gilbert said. “We started trying to hit stuff and it just turned into a game like golf.”
The boys who take part include juniors Matthew Del Signore, Michael Hennessey, Nolan Gilbert, Luke Lundy, Jonathan Pratt and Clark Girardin.
“[The people who play are] usually guys from baseball or whoever can handle a baseball bat,” Gilbert said. “But we’re pretty chill about it, so we invite our friends too just to hang out.”
The group meets at the AHS baseball field to play once or twice a week after school or on the weekend. “It’s great because you can hang out with your friends and just relax while having fun,” junior Jonathan Pratt said.
“I like the incorporation of our great nation’s past time into a good game of golf,” junior Clark Girardin said. Because Girardin does not play baseball anymore, he sees bolf as a way for him to hang out and have fun with his friends.
“It’s great that you can’t cheat when you play,” Gilbert said. “It’s also really satisfying when you get a hole-in-one.”
Players are unable to cheat because of the constant presence of the other participants.
“My advice to people that play would be to hit the ball accurately,” Girardin said. “Don’t just hit the ball as hard as possible, it usually just makes you do worse.”
Despite how much fun the group is having, they aren’t planning on making it an official game.
“We aren’t trying to turn it into some big sport,” Gilbert said. “Right now, it’s just something we do to chill and bond as a team for baseball since most of us play. If it gets any more competitive, it won’t be as enjoyable.”
