Two-hundred and fifteen miles away, at Sea Trail Resort in Sunset Beach, N.C., hundreds of small, white, dimpled spheres descended from the sky onto fresh-cut grass. This signified an invasion by Guilford’s golf team of the Sea Trail Intercollegiate Tournament, which lasted from Sept. 19 -21.While visiting, the Quakers decided to abduct second place.
This marked not only the Quakers’ first golf tournament of the season, but also an impressive tournament finish. The Sea Trail tournament is populated with mostly division one teams, and the Quakers’ home planet of Guilford, division three, is one of the few smaller spheres represented there. To come away with second place at one of the larger intergalactic competitions certainly bodes ill for any lesser targets that Guilford’s golfers choose to set their sights on.
“It was really windy, so that made it hard,” said the Quakers’ junior captain Brian Creghan, commenting on the relatively high scores of all the teams. Individually Creghan snagged sixth, with the next Quaker being first-year Dusty Roberts who finished 11th out of 96.
“It was good to start the season off playing more to our ability (against larger schools),” Creghan said.
Guilford has housed an accomplished team of space invaders for some time now, with a string of medals and honors attesting to that fact which date back to 1979. In keeping track of those which dock here, the athletics department has amassed a list of 39 golfers on All-American teams and 59 individual medals which previous Quakers achieved.
Despite their glowing records, the Quakers hadn’t acquitted themselves so well at this particular tournament before, and fell short of their potential in the last two seasons, a fact which they have now made obsolete.
“It’s a team, a shared responsibility. I expect us to have a very good year and better than the past couple of years,” said Head Coach Jack Jensen while out-looking their season.
The Quakers saw the debut of two first-years on this mission: Jeff Boyan and Dusty Roberts. As signified by the win this past weekend, they have apparently proven themselves quite useful, and they look to display their skills again soon.
According to rumor, the nearest touchdown spot on earth for these ball-slinging, maroon-clad extraterrestrials will come on the Sept. 29-30 at the Greensboro College Invitational (GCI). This mysterious gathering will be taking place at Bryan Park. The next nearby opportunity, after the GCI is the Tom and Bettie O’Briant Memorial Tournament at The Cardinal Golf and Country Club on Oct. 27-28.
Until then, watch the skies and stay on guard. The aliens are generally considered friendly, but if you should hear one shout something akin to the earth-word “Fore!,” it is the government’s official position that you should run for the nearest patch of trees.