With the season already underway, the Dartmouth High golf team is looking subpar. But that’s just the way they like it.

Head Coach Michael Frates said the team has made progress during summer practices and is “finally coming together.”

He said there is good competition among the team’s 17 players, with only the top three or four safely holding their starting positions. With eight total match spots available, he noted that any one of about a dozen players all have a chance to start this season.

“As a coach you couldn’t ask for a better situation,” he said, explaining that the competitive atmosphere has led students to practice on their own on the weekends to try to get an edge over their teammates.

Among those vying for a match position are two freshmen that Frates said are “showing real promise” and a senior girl, Maddie Pyne, who he said has “really improved.”

Frates explained that the team is technically co-ed — even though it is primarily dominated by boys — with girls playing from one tee ahead of their male teammates.

Frates said that even though the size of the team is about average, he has run into some trouble because golf as a whole has become more popular lately.

“Getting tee times for practices is harder because it’s so crowded,” he said, but added that the team’s home course, Allendale Country Club, “always takes care of us.”

The golf team got into the swing of things on Thursday, Sept. 1, starting its season with a resounding win over New Bedford High.

The Indian golfers scored 109 points to New Bedford’s 54 in the nine-hole, “modified stableford” style event, which inverts the typical golf scoring by awarding more points to golfers when they finish a hole using fewer strokes.

Dartmouth’s top scorers in the event were Will Gangi and Michael Correia with 23 points each, and Ian Emery with 18 points.