The Seaside girls golf team enters the 2018 season in much better shape than they finished 2017.

Last year, the final tournament of the year for the Gulls was the district tourney at Forest Hills, in which Seaside had only three scoring golfers (to qualify for state as a team, you need at least four).

For now, the Gulls are back to four. And maybe five.

Either way, it’s still going to be a young group for second-year coach Mike Verhulst.

Seaside played its first two tournaments of 2018 with sophomores Caitlin Hillman and Sydney Rapp, and freshmen Madi Grimm and Tristyn McFadden, who is currently listed as the Gulls’ No. 1 golfer.

Hillman is the only returner from last season, one of the three Seaside players in the Cowapa League meet and regionals. Top golfer Caroline Kotson has graduated.

Only three of the Cowapa schools had four or more golfers in last year’s league meet, won by Valley Catholic, ahead of Astoria and Scappoose.

Oregon Episcopal won the district meet, which serves as the qualifying tournament for state.

“I’m excited to see how the girls progress throughout the season, and look forward to continuing to grow the program,” Verhulst said. “The girls are eager to move into league play and get experience with the new scoring format for the matches (modified Stableford). A huge focus for our program will be developing our short game.”

And the Gulls may add one more golfer to the roster at some point.

“It looks like we may be adding a fifth golfer to the mix with a recent out-of-state transfer student,” Verhulst said. “We look forward to adding her into the mix for league matches.”