Men's Golf 2009 Spring Season Outlook

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA -- The Williams men's golf team hopes to end the spring portion of its schedule at the exact same place it will have its first competition – The PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, FL. Over spring break the Ephs will be in the Port St. Lucie area for two weeks and they will host a two-day Sunshine Invitational at The PGA Club (March 26 & 27), the site of the 2009 NCAA Division III Championships, which will begin on May 9th.

"The Sunshine Invitational will be a good test and I am sure our players will use it as a catalyst to earn a return trip to the NCAAs in May," comments Pohle. "I simply told our players that we are the reigning NESCAC Champions until someone beats us, so let’s use our experience to our advantage."

Eph head coach Rick Pohle, now in his 27th year, has led the Ephs to 10 NESCAC titles and 10 trips to the NCAA Tournament and he will be looking to fine tune this year's Eph unit into a return trip to the NCAA Championships after garnering the NESCAC's automatic bid last spring.

The Ephs along with Middlebury, Trinity and Hamilton will meet at Middlebury on April 25 and 26 to determine this year's NESCAC automatic qualifier.

Tyler Zara '09

In addition to getting his Ephs ready for the NESCAC automatic qualifying event in late April Pohle and his Ephs will be seeking a 12th consecutive Little Three title when they tee it up vs. Amherst and Wesleyan in Middletown, CT on April 29th. 

The start of any athletic season is exciting, but for teams with split schedules like golf the “second season” is special. Players that played well in the fall want to see if the magic is still there, while those that struggled hope the time off has re-energized their game. Players have new clubs to break-out, swing changes developed in the living room that need reinforcement, and for others just the desire just to get back out on the golf course. Perhaps the biggest challenge that awaits the team is the shortness of the spring season and trying to get their games in competitive shape as soon as possible.

The Ephs played well enough to qualify for he NESCAC Championships in late spring with their fall play, but overall they did not play as well as they had hoped. "Right now, I would say that is a by-product of how men’s golf is going for the moment," says Pohle. "With the current AQ process for conference champions making it to the NCAA Championships, it allows us to play a larger number of players over the schedule and a variety of types of competitions – no longer are we forced to maintain a specific level of play just to get a committee’s decision for post season play; although that may change in the very near future."

Jack Killea '11

“Experience is still our biggest asset – we have a large number of players that have seen significant playing time," notes Pohle. "Senior co-captains Matt Felser and Tyler Zara have done a fine job molding this year’s team and both are very competitive by nature. Sophomores Drew Murray, Jack Killea and Jake Wagner have been the most consistent performers over the past two seasons and will be expected to anchor the lineup."

"First year, Siwol Chang held his own during the fall portion of the schedule and should fit in nicely with the team this spring.  “I am looking for sophomore Bob Camp to return to his past form of a year ago, senior Galen Jackson to continue his rise up the roster and first year Chris Valle to accept his role with the team," notes Pohle.  “With the spring season being so short, we will identify the “hot” players and see where it takes us.”