Wellesley High sophomore Ryan Keyes wins match medalist at Division 1 state championship

WELLESLEY — Before he went to sleep on Oct. 24, Ryan Keyes came up with a plan.

The Wellesley High sophomore formulated a strategy to successfully navigate Wentworth Hills Country Club, a 5,352-yard golf course in Plainville that Keyes and his teammates would play the next day in the Division 1 state championship.

“When I was going to bed that night I was looking over the course overview and I noticed – other than two holes – I wouldn’t need more than 3-iron off the tee and I wouldn’t need more than a 7-iron to get to the hole,” Keyes said. “I always tell myself to play smart.”

So that’s exactly what he did.

Except for a handful of par 3s, Keyes hit his 3-iron off of the tee box on every hole and posted a 1-under par score of 70. He edged out Lincoln-Sudbury’s Jared Drew by one stroke to win match medalist.

“The plan paid off,” Keyes said.

Keyes helped Wellesley finish as runner-ups in the Div. 1 state final on Oct. 25. The Raiders ended with a team score of 308, just two strokes behind the winners from St. John’s Prep.

“I didn’t know I had the win secured until the last person came in,” Keyes said. “Once I knew, it was pretty exciting stuff. I wish we could’ve won as a team as well but coming in second for the first time in team history is no small feat.

“So we’ll take it. Take it for Year 1; we’ll be back next year.”

Keyes started to take golf seriously two years ago.

Last season, Keyes played in only a handful of the Raiders’ 10 matches as a freshman during a COVID-19 shortened campaign. His scoring average was around an 84 for 18 holes. Then, for a month this summer, Keyes trained at The Golf Performance Center in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

He worked with two golf instructors and altered his swing – all while playing golf for 14 hours each day.   

“I was putting in a lot of hours, every day,” said Keyes, who now has a +0.2 handicap. “It wasn’t easy but I think being able to have access to coaching and the practice facility that I did – I took advantage of it and it finally paid off in the state championship.”

After starting his day on the 11th hole at Wentworth Hills Country Club, Keyes found himself with a long walk between holes No. 9 and No. 10 to close out his round. He told himself the night before that the 396-yard par 4 may be the only hole he’d hit driver on.

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But as he approached the tee box at No. 11, Keyes reverted back to the approach that helped him all day.    

“I made up in my mind that I would hit a 3-iron,” Keyes said. “I stayed true to that and I guess that was the signature shot.”

“I thought it was a great decision,” Wellesley head golf coach Ken Bateman said. “Hit the club that’s going to put you in play. You say that all the time.”

After hitting his tee shot into the fairway, Keyes found a bit of trouble when his approach shot got caught up in a stiff breeze and found a hazard in front of the green. Still, the 5-foot-10, 140-pound golfer punched the ball out of trouble and onto the putting surface for a 20-foot chance at par.

And wouldn’t you know it – Keyes nailed the putt.

“Lined it up, took my time and I hit probably one of the best putts of the day,” Keyes said. “It caught the right edge and fell right in and I gave a little fist pump and I looked over to my friend (Lincoln Blake), who was next to us on hole 12. So that was a cool, little moment because I got to see him while doing that.”

Three days later, the Wellesley High golf team met at Nehoiden Golf Club in Wellesley for an end-of-the-year tournament.

The Raiders competed in a team-wide, 3-club competition to help raise money for breast cancer awareness.

“Loser jumps in the Charles (River),” said Wellesley freshman Cole Adams, who posed for pictures with his team and the Div. 1 runner-up trophy on the first tee box at Nehoiden.

“That’s going to be you, Cole,” Bateman said with a joke.

“Most likely,” Adams responded.

That’s the Wellesley High golf team in a nutshell this fall.

“It’s all fun in games until it’s time for them to play,” Bateman said. “The instant they hit the first tee ball, they’re focused. I think that’s why they’re such a great group.”

And it’s a group that Keyes is excited to be a part of for the next two years. The Raiders were happy to have him step in as their new ace in the hole this season.

“Did I anticipate he’d get that much better over one year? Absolutely not and I’m excited he got that much better,” Bateman said. “If he keeps on working on it, he has a shot at playing Division 1 college golf.”

“It was nice to kind of pop up out of nowhere,” Keyes said.

Tommy Cassell is a senior multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tcassell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @tommycassell44.