Golf grabs fourth in final season tournament

The golf team took fourth place at its last tournament for the season, the Aflac Cougar Invitational Meet in Columbus, Ga. The meet ran from Oct. 3rd through the 4th, and included 17 different schools from around the South.

After the first two rounds on Oct. 3, the Bobcats established their fourth place seat at the invitational and held on to it into the third and final round the following day.

“The kids really stepped up at this meet,” Head Coach Jimmy Wilson said. “I was pleased with our finish.”

Wilson is in his 16th year as a coach for the golf team and started off part-time coaching the team.

“I jumped at the chance to take on coaching full time,” Wilson said. “I want to make a difference and that is why I do what I do.”

Freshman Ryan Trocchio led the team with the lowest score, shooting a pair of 71’s in Monday’s two rounds and finished the final round on Tuesday with a one-over-par score of 72. His results tied him for eighth place in the overall tournament. This was Trocchio’s first top-10 spot in a meet at Georgia College.

Finishing second for the Bobcats was junior Taylor Smith, who shot a 74 and a 69 on Monday’s rounds. On Tuesday, he finished out the third round with a 74, giving him an overall score of 217, tying him for 13th place overall.

Coming in third for GC was senior Jeff Rives, who finished 35th place overall. Rives shot a pair of 74’s in the first two rounds and finished out the tournament on Tuesday with a third-round score of 73, giving him an overall score of 221.

“Playing 36 holes in one day is difficult, but the next day you just have to shake it off and play 18 more holes,” Rives said. “Physically and mentally you have to be ready to go and each guy has (his) own thing to get ready for the next day.”

Junior Bernardo Bide finished out Monday’s first round with a 70 and shot a 77 in the second round. In Tuesday’s solo round, Bide finished out with a 78, giving him an overall score of 225, giving him a tie for 46th place.

Sophomore Gavin Harper took 80th place in the tournament with a score of 239. Harper shot an 83 and an 80 in the first two rounds. On Tuesday, Harper came out in the final round and birdied his last two holes, giving him a third-round score of 76.

The team has qualifiers to see which five players get to represent the team in upcoming tournaments.

“I play a lot of the kids in the fall to see who is ready for spring,” Wilson said. “All the scores for fall count towards spring.”

The Aflac Cougar Invitational wrapped up the fall season for the Bobcats and now they are looking toward the spring season.

“Our sights are set on winning,” Rives said. “We have a lot of work to do on the off-season.”

The first meet for the team will be Valentine’s Day weekend, and until then it is continuing its hard work to win the championship.

“We are setting our next goals on placing in the top five spots for the Southeast NCAA Regional’s to then qualify for the National Championship,” Wilson said.

The ultimate goal for the Bobcats would be to win the National Championship in the spring.

“I think we can do it,” Wilson said. “We definitely have the talent.”

The team has workouts twice a week and each player practices on his own time at various courses including the Milledgeville Country Club, the Harbor Club, the Golf Club at Cuscowilla and Reynolds Landing Golf Club.

“All 12 guys help push the team towards the next season,” Rives said. “We are all shooting towards the same goal.”

Posted by Julia Richardson on Oct 6 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.