Golf team wraps up fall preseason

By Myra Frederick
Sports Editor

The UNCP golf team recently wrapped up their 2004 fall pre-season. The team is playing well as they now await their spring season.

Under the direction of the new Head Coach Kyle Savage, the Braves’ golf team consists of 13 mostly right-handed swinging young men. Four of the young men are freshmen, two are sophomores, four are juniors and three are seniors.

According to Tommy Baker, a junior on the team, seniors Rex Willoughby, Robert McKinney and Greg Dobbins are the leaders of the team. The young men are leaders both in their drive and their wisdom on how the game of golf should be played.

The Braves’ golf preseason began with the Kiawah Island in South Carolina Sept. 6-7. The invitational was a little rough for the Braves because of Hurricane Frances. The rain and winds of the hurricane was against the Braves and played a key factor in their second place finish to first place winners USC Aiken. Last pre-season, the men finished in 13th place.

UNCP leaders of the invitational were Willoughby, who finished third place, Dobbins, who finished fourth place and junior John Thompson, who was the only other UNCP man to place in the top 30. There were a total of 55 golfers.

The second invitational was the Johnny Palmer/Old North State Invitational on Sept. 20th and 21st at Uwarrie Point, N.C. The Braves’ golf team finished in sixth place out of the 24 teams that were present. The Braves turned in a score of +39 of 303. Leading the team in individuals was again Willoughby with a two-day score of +7. Also leading the team was Dobbins. He tied for 19th place at nine over par. Juniors John Kassabian, who is from Scarborough, Ontario, and Tommy Baker and sophomore Chris Helms also had worth mentioning scores. Kassabian and Helms both finished with +12, and Baker was 18 over. Defending champions, USC Aiken placed first in the invitational.

The Braves third invitational as the Cougar Invitational in Columbus, Georgia on Oct. 3-5. In the fall preseason of 2003, the men finished in ninth place.

This preseason, the UNCP men tied with hosting team Columbus State University for a ninth place finish again. They had a three-day total drive of 898.

Helms scored an ace of 172-yard par three eighth hole on the first day of the invitational.

Sophomore Travis Marshall helped the Braves’ game by coming in at seven over and tying for the 24th finish.

Dobbins and Lee Nejberger, a junior, rounded out UNCP. Dobbins finished 11th place. Nejgerger finished his first game of the preseason at +25.

The men played well in all of their invitationals, though they did not finish well every time.

“We played fairly well,” Tommy Baker said. “We didn’t play to the level that we would have liked to play, but we did well.”

Baker and the rest of the Braves golf team will practice on their course management and mental strengths to get ready for the spring season.

The men also had an invitational meet on Oct. 17-19 in Concord, NC at the Pfeiffer Intercollegiate Invitational. In the last fall pre-season, the men placed in tenth place. Hopefully, they would have placed higher, if not first.