This year’s team, this fall, was probably one of the biggest surprises we’ve had in the golf program in ten years,” said golf coach Jack Jensen.
Jensen chose the team by taking the top five players after eight qualifying rounds. The team was freshman Colin Clark, sophomore Brant Stovall, sophomore Daniel Day, sophomore Chris Lowman, and freshman Joseph Poplin. Senior Harrison Pinnix also played in several tournaments.
All five top players are freshmen or sophomores, but Lowman said this isn’t a problem.
“Some might say that one of our weaknesses is our young players,” Lowman said, “but we have all played enough golf to handle the pressure.”
Only Stovall and Lowman were first- team in all last year’s tournaments, so Jensen said that because several of last year’s star players aren’t playing this year, he worried the team would not be as good as past years’ teams.
But the team surpassed Jensen’s expectations.
The team placed first in a Sept. 16-17 tournament at Badin Lake, where they were the only Division III team playing against Division II teams. In tournaments at Clemmons and Sneads Ferry, the team placed second. At Clemmons, the team tied for first place but lost in a playoff round.
In tournament play, the four lowest scores are counted toward the total.
“If one person had a bad day, the other four had good days and that’s really important in team golf,” said Jensen, stressing teamwork but adding, “the guys get along really well.”
Clark and Lowman agreed with Jensen.
“The best part of the team is that we don’t have any big egos, and everybody just wants the team to play well,” said Clark.
“We definitely have a team atmosphere and we all want to win,” Lowman said.
Because of the team’s fall successes, “we’ve adjusted our goals to think about the NCAA,” said Jensen.
This fall, in Division III national polls, the team’s ranking moved from 12th to 8th, and eventually to 3rd. A few weeks ago, they were ranked 2nd nationally.
Also, the golf program has a strong NCAA history. The 2002 team were Division III champions.
But Jensen also has simpler goals.
“We want to continue playing as well as in the fall,” said Jensen.
Lowman’s goals are similar to Jensen’s.
“This season, our goal is to do as well if not better than our fall season,” Lowman said. “We really want to move up into the number one spot in the nation and win the national tournament.