Given what he accomplished the previous five months, a lot was expected of Norwich senior golfer Eric Walling this season. The fifth-year member of the Tornado is delivering on all of those expectations with his usual brand of steady, consistent play.

So reliable is Walling, longtime Norwich head coach Bob Branham can just about pencil in his number one player’s score within a stroke or two. “A lot of his steady play is attributed to (Eric’s) take on life,” Branham said earlier this week. “He’s remarkably mature, very level-headed, and he doesn’t seem to be swayed by others. He just plays his game, and he works endlessly on it. He’s a very disciplined player.”

Walling’s promise as a player came to the forefront last year when he earned medalist honors in nine matches, and was a STAC All-Conference player earning a stroke average for the season of just 3.19 strokes over par. He also became just the third player under Branham to qualify for the Section IV state tournament team.

Walling is even better this year averaging a scant 2.37 strokes over par, and he was the overall match medalist in all three of Norwich’s clashes a week ago. Mind you, he was playing in less-than-ideal conditions all week as the local area is still in recovery mode from the horrendous rainstorms and flooding of earlier this month.