Golf’s spring season is set to begin after months of preparation and a full slate of fall tournaments.
Practice hasn’t been easy to come by, especially after a COVID-19-related shakeup last spring and this year’s especially harsh winter. Last spring, the team’s regular practice course, Army Navy Arlington, couldn’t host the team anymore due to COVID-19 restrictions, forcing the team to move to Trump National, a course almost 40 minutes away from the heart of the campus.
This year, finding facilities and friendly weather continues to be a challenge for the squad.
“This was probably close to the worst winter we’ve had since I’ve been there,” Head Coach Chuck Scheinost said. “In January we were only able to get out twice and they were during the week, which isn’t as conducive for us getting some actual practice in. And then you get a couple of nice days like this, and everyone’s coming out of the woodwork trying to find a tee time.”
The team isn’t just attempting to get in practice but is also working on setting their five-man lineup for the upcoming slew of spring tournaments. Each practice round score is recorded, and in the spring, the four lowest scoring players and one player selected by Scheinost, make the five-man team to compete in tournaments.
“Generally, we have four open qualifying spots and one coach’s selection,” Scheinost said. “And as we go to the spring, this event, we have three open qualifying spots and two coaches selections. And that will continue to go higher and higher on the coach’s selections as we get to the A-10 Championship.”
By the time the season culminates in the A-10 Championship, Scheinost will be selecting all five golfers based on practice scores, tournament performance, and how well players’ games’ fit to the course.
“I base it off of who I believe is going to give us the best chance to win,” Scheinost said. “And it’s really a body of work at that point.”
This year’s championship will consist of three rounds held in Orlando, Florida at Reunion Resort and Golf Club. The winner of this contest secures an automatic berth to the NCAA championship.
But before the championship comes, there are four other three-round tournaments, including the Redhawk Invitational played at Chambers Bay golf course on April 4, a former site of the PGA’s US Open.
The squad opened the spring slate with the Invitational at Savannah Harbor Feb. 19 and Feb. 20, finishing 14th out of 16 teams with a 37-over-par 901.
Freshman Arav Patel led GW with a five-over-par 221 to tie for 25th overall, recording 36 pars and eight birdies. Juniors Hugo Riboud and Jakub Hrinda notched nine birdies each to place 40th and 45th, respectively.
Though golf is played individually, the squad still has still managed to build a team mentality.
“A good part of it is, you’re always kind of playing, not with each other, but you’ll be teeing off on the third hole while your teammates are teeing off on the second,” graduate student Clifford Thomspon said. “You always walk past each other and sort of see each other across the fairway and try to give each other some type of encouragement.”
Thompson, who is originally from Broederstroom, South Africa, said he was able to practice extensively over winter break back home and outlined his main goals for the final season of his golf career.
“I guess, to push each and every one of my teammates to the best of their ability and trying to support them in every way possible and hopefully make the lineup for conference and do something special,” he said.
The squad made a point of prioritizing team building ahead of the fall slate last year since they were not allowed to interact outside the course in adherence with health guidelines imposed during the pandemic.
Fellow graduate student Florian Blatti said it has been a “little tough” for him personally since he had high expectations to carry on the level of play from his last senior semester of play.
“I had a few events where I had a few good rounds but didn’t always keep it together,” Blatti said. “But it’s always great to be able to see where your game is and just you can keep building on it. And from what I’ve seen last semester, and from the work I’ve been putting in and seeing my coach, I’m definitely hopeful for a lot of good things for the spring.
Prior to his time at GW, Blatti played at George Mason for all four years of his undergraduate career. He said he is looking forward to playing at the Mid Pines Golf Course again, where he had a career-best finish at the Donald Ross Collegiate Classic last year, placing third out of 82 golfers in the 54-hole in the two day tournament.
Blatti finished four-under-par 68 in the final round to finish two-under par overall, scoring 74 and 72 strokes in the first two rounds for a total stroke count of 214.
He said he is focusing on his mindset as he looks to close out his career with something special.
“I just really want to go out there and just have fun. Give it all I can both in practice and in competition, but just keep having fun because I realized in the past that it’s such a short period of time that you get to play college sports,” Blatti said.
Golf is one of the few sports at GW that essentially plays two seasons, both fall and spring, giving them an extra gauge on their prospects heading toward the A-10 Championship. Despite some middling finishes, Scheinost said he liked what he saw from his team.
“So for us in the fall, our results weren’t great,” Scheinsot said. “However, we played a lot of really good golf. We got several tournaments where we were in the top three, through pretty much 30 to 35 holes in the tournament, and then slipped. So, you know, we have the potential to actually play some really good golf.”
