Golf tees off at Kiawah Invitational

The start of this year’s golf season also announces Jimmy Wilson’s 16th year as head golf coach. The GC golf team was recently tabbed No. 14 in the Men’s Division II Preseason Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches’ Poll. The team will start the season at the Kiawah Island Invitational in Kiawah Island, S.C., from Sept. 5-6.

“We just finished the qualifying rounds but you never know what to expect this early in the season,” Wilson said. “I guess you could say there really aren’t too many expectations in this first tournament except that the guys are ready to play.”

Wilson is also associate athletic director for GC. He is second in charge of the Athletic Department and deals with their daily business needs, scholarships and budgets.

Patrick Garrett, a junior on the team, talks about their results in last year’s tournament and what he expects this year.

“We had a good showing last year there and finished third as a team. It’s a great tournament to start the year and I expect another solid tournament,” Garrett said.” I think if we play up to our potential, we can definitely win, so I’m looking forward to it.”

In the last two years, the team has lost four All-American players to graduation and there are no seniors.

“We’re starting out a little bit young this year so hopefully we’ll be peaking by the end of the year,” Wilson said. “Ultimately our goal is to win the National Championship.”

The Bobcats have two All-Conference players returning to the team, Patrick Garrett and Gavin Harper. Garrett explains his goals as a team and his own personal goals for this season.

“We have a young team with a lot of talent, so I’m interested to see how we hold up,” Garrett said. “My personal goals for this year are kind of high, I want something to aim for. I want to be an All-American at the end of this year, so I have to stay healthy and play very consistent golf; and if I can manage to win a few tournaments along the way, that would be great.”

Sophomore pre-engineering major Tyler Tucker, also has high hopes for the team this season.

“We have a young team but I believe we have the potential to be just as good as any other team in the country,” Tucker said. “We have a great five (players) traveling this week to the tournament and I expect nothing less than a win.”

The 2011-12 Georgia College roster includes Pontus Anderson, Bernardo Bide, Bryan Fox, Patrick Garrett, Gavin Harper, Josh Klipstein, Victor Monte, Jeff Rives, Taylor Smith, David Sullivan, Ryan Trocchio and Tyler Tucker.

Coach Wilson and Assistant Coach Kyle Collins, a 2009 graduate of GC, will lead the team in several tournaments these coming months in states including South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Posted by CourtneyCoile on Sep 1 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.