3 golf players added to All-PBC teams

Freshman Ryan Trocchio didn’t like golf at all.

In fact, he says he hated it.

He preferred baseball from childhood to his middle school years, and it wasn’t until eighth grade, when he started putting a bit more and his father joined a country club, that he decided he did indeed like golf.

He started taking golfing seriously his freshman year, but he says he wasn’t competitive immediately.   

Lauren Davidson | gcsunade.com

“I didn’t really get competitively good until my junior year in high school and that is when I fell in love with tournament golf and decided to try to play college,” Trocchio said.

After a successful first season at Georgia College, with four top-10 finishes in seven tournaments and a third place finish at the Pirate Invitational in Savannah, Trocchio became the third player in the history of the GC golf program to be named Freshman of the Year by the Peach Belt Conference.

He also earned a spot on the All-PBC Second Team.

“I got Second Team this year, which was actually a surprise to me,” Trocchio said. “I definitely want to try to make First Team my next three years and not only First Team, but try to become  All-American and win a national championship for Georgia College.”

Joining Trocchio on the All-PBC Second Team is junior Taylor Smith. Smith and Trocchio share more than that honor. Smith, too, waited until eighth grade to really pick up golf as his primary sport.

“I played baseball when I was 4 until eighth grade and then I was better at golf than everyone else was, so I stuck with golf from then on,” Smith said.

Smith says it’s rewarding to be selected for the first post-season honor of his career.

“I thought I had a pretty good season, but I didn’t know what it took to get a post-season honor, so I was very pleased,” Smith said.

That “pretty good season” consisted of two top-10 finishes and a stroke average of 74.1.

Junior Patrick Garrett’s name was added to the roster of the All-PBC First Team for the second straight year.

He attributes this to a good summer and getting off to a good start in the fall. During the spring Garrett logged a lot of practice time to stay in top shape for matches.

Garrett took the top spot at the Pirate Invitational this year as well as boasting a 73.4 stroke average for the season.

The win in Savannah was a nice surprise for Garrett.

“It was good. It was unexpected,” Garrett said. “We went out there and we had bad rain delays and the course was really soggy and I didn’t really know what to expect score-wise, but I hit it really well and I putted really well and when we got in I was leading and it was pretty exciting.”

Garrett is happy with the other seven players on the First Team with him.

“I was in good company this year,” Garrett said. “There were a lot of big names up there with me, Jordan Walor from (UNC) Pembroke and Rourke van der Spuy from Columbus (State). There are some good players and I’ve gotten to know them over the past couple years and they are pretty good friends, so it’s just nice enjoying that with them.”

Posted by Bobbi Otis on Apr 26 2012. Filed under Lead stories, 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.