Sports

Swat golf gets it going

In print | March 27, 2008

Unbeknownst to the wider Swarthmore community, the Swat golf team has been hard at work these past few weeks. Coming off of a spring break trip to Pinehurst, North Carolina, the golfers dove straight into their busy season schedule.

After a successful showing at Pinehurst, where Michael Bernasek ‘09 led the Garnet to a victory against the University of Pittsburg—Greensburg, the golfers suffered a disappointing loss on their home course to the Neumann College Knights. Despite strong play from Jeffrey Lazarus ’10, the Garnet couldn’t compete with the Knights, who dropped four rounds in the 70’s on Rolling Green’s par-71 course.

After their first home match of the season, the Garnet golfers traveled to Sea View Golf Resort in Atlantic City to play Richard Stockton College. Battling tough conditions, such as 30-40 mph winds coming off of the water, challenging greens and the absence of two of their top players — captains Lazarus and Bernasek — Swarthmore lost to the Ospreys by a mere three stroke margin. The Garnet was led by the only captain present to play, Darren Johnson ‘08. Johnson’s impressive performance was the best individual round of the match by a good deal. Asked about the team’s performance, Johnson said, “Considering that two of our best players weren’t there, it wasn’t a bad result.” Unfortunately Bernasek recently broke his toe, but the team is hoping to have him back on the green soon.

This past Monday, the golfers again hosted a match on their home course. Out of the six teams present, Holy Family University ended up securing the team win. Two Swarthmore golfers, Johnson and Lazarus posted 79s to tie for eighth place individually. Swarthmore’s team score was rounded out by Armand Russo ’08 who shot an 86, followed by two 92s shot by Michael “the BIG DOG” Johns ’08 and Kelly Schoolmeester ’10.

For those without much background in collegiate golf, team scoring works like this: a team consists of five golfers, the top four of whom count towards the team score, with the fifth acting as a tie-breaker if the need should arise. The matches in which college teams compete consist of 18 holes. On average, an 18-hole course takes about four hours to complete, and can require a great deal of walking. While these golfers rarely get to joyride in golf carts, some of the athletes enjoy the exercise of walking the 18 holes, while carrying their own clubs.

In fact, the whole week of a Swarthmore golfer is quite busy. Normally a home match on Monday, played on the Rolling Greens Country Club golf course, is followed by a Tuesday practice back at Rolling Green. Wednesday usually consists of practice at a nearby driving range, Thursday is practice again at Rolling Green, Friday is usually an away match, or a prep for a weekend match, and on their off-weekends the golfers return to their place within the Swarthmore bubble and “hit the books,” as their coach Jim Heller says.

Heller has been coaching the golf team here for three years and has developed close relationships with his athletes. Russo described Heller as a “good man and a good coach.” Under Heller’s watch they have developed a rather successful lineup. Last year they placed second in the Centennial Conference Championships, the best finish in the history of Swarthmore golf. They lost two All-Centennial players Eric Zwick ‘07 and Zach Moody ’07, who graduated into life after Swat and the world of business. They are also down one other key player, David Lau ’09, who is studying abroad at Oxford this year. Despite these losses, Swat is being led by a strong, but young group of captains: Johnson, Bernasek and Lazarus. Andy Hoot ’10 described the team as a pretty “close-knit group.” While most of the team members have some sort of previous golfing experience, Samantha Phong ’09 said, "It’s nice to play with people at a variety of levels – it makes all of us better players."

For the first time in 50 years, the Garnet golf team is joined by two women. Phong and Ashley Acle ’11. Both women are from California and compete alongside the men throughout the season, but both will compete as individuals in the Conference Championships where they will be up against other women.

Golf is a mental game of intense focus, and has a great deal of etiquette that accompanies the sport. For example, when a fellow golfer is hitting the ball, others try not to distract, limiting noise production and movement. As it takes hours to get around a course, decorum keeps tension down and allows for an enjoyable round of golf. That being said, spectators are welcome at matches—the next match home match will be held on March 31.