Things Are Starting to Come Around

The past three events have been nothing but exciting for the Trojan Golf Team. We've been playing against some of the best teams in the country and we are SOOOOO close to beating them every time now. Here's a recap of the last three tournaments:

Troy University Invitational
We played 54 holes with Mississippi State, one of the better teams in the country, at Heritage Ridge Plantation Golf Course. The weather was the worst I've personally ever seen for golf and our guys responded very well.

It's not every day that you can play golf in shorts one day and then play in the snow the next!! We finished second to MSU and showed the SEC that a mid-major is very capable of taking down a top-tier team.

Chase Whitehead played extremely well as an individual and I think that excited every person on our golf team into playing well. Everyone has really been stepping up and playing much better each and every day.

Ron Smith/USF Invitational
Wes Parker, Rourke Van Der Spuy, Chase Whitehead, Reid Merritt, and myself played in what we call our favorite tournament of the year at Lake Jovita Golf Course in Dade City, Fla. The tournament included two teams ranked in the top 25, and five teams in the top 50.

After we shot our low round of the year the first round, 290, we stood in 14th place. The second round was much different though. We got off to a hot start and kept it going throughout the round.

Again, Chase provided the excitement for us by shooting a smooth little 67. Add that to Rourke's 71, Reid's 71, and mine and Wes's 72 and we shot 281 (-7), the best round of the tournament, to move from 14th to second.

The last day was a very fun day in itself. We played with national powers Marquette and Louisville along with the top team in the Sun Belt, Middle Tennessee. We hung in there and battled all day long to shoot 295.

We dropped back to seventh, but got the respect from a lot of teams who are ranked in the top 30 in the country. Wes played an amazing tournament by shooting 71-72-72. Rourke and Chase also played great by shooting 72-71-73, and 75-67-75, respectively.

This tournament was a humongous confidence booster for us because we now know that we belong in tournaments with the best teams in the country.

FSU Spring Break Invitational
This was the fun one ? a one day, 36-hole shootout. This is what we practice for and dream of. A chance to play head-to-head with a top 25 school. We showed up in Tallahassee knowing that we had an amazing chance to beat the ?Noles on their home track. After the first round, that's exactly what we were doing.

Michael McGrady shot 67, Rourke Van Der Spuy and myself shot 69, Chase Whitehead shot 71 and Wes Parker shot 74. Reid Merritt also played well as an individual and shot 73.

Again, we broke our best round of the year by shooting 276 (-12) to build a six-shot lead on FSU with 18 holes to go. The final 18 though, FSU showed us why they are one of the best teams in the country.

A 63, a 65, and three 70s added up to a 20-under par round for FSU which was enough to come from behind and beat us. We played well though. Rourke Van Der Spuy shot 71, I shot 72, Parker and Whitehead shot 73 and McGrady shot 74.

Reid played extremely well in the second round and shot 71. This was probably our biggest confidence booster because after 27 holes of the tournament we had the 23rd ranked team in the country scared out of their mind on their home course.

Everything we're doing seems to be paying off more and more each and every day. Next week, when we head to South Alabama for the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate, we will continue pushing for a tournament win with the momentum we have gained in the past month.

So, lookout for the Trojan Golf Team to make more headlines as the year progresses towards the conference championship!!

GO TROJANS!!

Jay Harris

Troy University Athletics

Related Videos