Golf team experiments in fall; prepares for spring

    After an average fall season, the Bobcat golf team looks forward to the spring. Last weekend marked the end of the fall season at the Cougar Invitational in Columbus as the Bobcats finished eighth out of 18.
    This season, Coach Jimmy Wilson has been mixing it up for each tournament, trying a new mix of players each time.
    “I wanted to give folks more of a chance to play in the fall in an effort to pick out who my top five would be in the spring,” Wilson said. “Just even trying to observe how the kids react to each other.”
    Players were grateful for the shuffling. Citing new line-ups as an opportunity for growth.
    “Coach tried to play as many people as he could so he could get enough people in to see how things are going to be for the spring,” said Joe Young, a freshman team member. “So it’s a learning process for all of us. But overall I think it’s something we can build off of and make ourselves better in the spring.”
    With all the switching and shuffling, Coach Wilson says he does not think he ever had his top five playing together during the fall season. He also said that no single player proved to be a hero or a zero.
    “Ideally we’ll go through qualifying. And ideally, some players will separate themselves from the pack,” says Wilson. “As we get later on in the spring season, as a coach you want to do less shuffling because you want to get guys ‘tournament tough’.”
    Even players recognize the lack of a standout star, but they are positive about the current skill level and team unity.
    “Everybody’s got so much talent and everybody’s on the same competitive level that, once we start playing more together, we start pushing each other to get better and, as that happens, then the team as a whole will get better,” says Young.
    Young broke away during the Coker Invitational in Orlando two weekends ago, making his first top-ten finish during his college career in tenth place. Sophomore Niclas Johansson finished strong in eighteenth place. Overall, the team finished ninth.
    Earlier this week at the Cougar Invitational, senior Juan Bialet and Johansson finished in fifteenth place with Young finishing in eighteenth.
    Players on the team have also identified problem areas they look forward to fixing during the spring season.
    “We kind of need to work on our short game and just … how to get the ball in the hole,” says senior Kyle Collins. “Golf is weird like that. The more you focus on the outcome, (the more) you want to win this tournament, or you want to drop your stroke average, the harder it is to get it.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 5 2007. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry