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The Spectator
Men's Golf Shows Promise By Finishing Third
By Ronald Wai '10Sports Writer
A vailiant effort by the Continentals saw them finish third at the four team New England Small College Athletic Conference last week, with a 616 team score from the 36 hole course. We caught up with captain Jeff Corbett '09 and Coach Al Highducheck to ponder over what has been a largely successful season.
Q: Any thoughts on our performance at the NESCAC? Where did we perform well and where not so well?
Corbett: As a team I thought we did really well at NESCAC. ?We missed going to NCAA by only three shots and our freshman really stepped up to the occasion. ?If the blame for us not winning can be placed anywhere, it has to be on my shoulders. ?I had probably my worst round as a college golfer the first day while everyone else on the team did well.
Coach Highduchek: Overall I thought we played as a team close to about?as well as?we could.? I think we were the surprise team of the four team event.? I base that on the relative performances between last weekend and the fall qualifier, which was also held at Middlebury and qualified the four teams at Middlebury last weekend to be there.? Last weekend had tough weather conditions with a 20 to 30 mph wind both days and on day two the wind direction changed 180 degrees making it play like a different course.? Middlebury and Williams were 20 strokes higher in the spring versus their fall scores in the NESCAC qualifier and Trinity was 19 strokes higher, so I would judge the course played about 20 strokes harder (for the total team score).? We were only 10 strokes higher than the fall and improved quite a bit versus each of the other three.
Q: Team member Brad Roche '11 said last time that we started well but lacked the closing touch to kill teams off. Did we improve in this respect?
Corbett: We did really well on the second day. ?We had the same score as the first day in much more difficult conditions. ?This has been a little bit of a problem of ours all season long but was not the case last weekend, I know every one on the team was happy with how things went the second day aside from us not winning.?
Q: Which teams impressed the most at the tournament? Or perhaps surprisingly underperformed? I wrote last time that Trinity was the team to look out for. Was I right, and did they live up to my hype?
Corbett: It was a really close?tournament as expected. ?Middlebury had a couple guys really career it on the second day and was able to pull away with it. ?While I?wouldn't?say Middlebury was the strongest team in the field, having a home course advantage really helped them out a lot. Trinity was probably the most talented of the four teams and played?relatively?well over the weekend, but was just edged out. ?Williams was probably the most?disappointed?of the four teams, they held the lead after round one but really fell off on the second day.?
Highduchek: Middlebury used the home course advantage that they earned by winning the fall qualifier,?just the way in which you should.? Trinity, which has been in the top 25 in the country all spring in the coaches poll, is arguably the best team in the conference and the loss on tiebreaking was a heartbreaker for them.? Although we played well on the second day, both of those teams closed a little?stronger than we did.
Q:That was the last event of the season. With three seniors graduating and only one junior on the roster this season, next season's squad will have a pretty youthful look. Any thoughts on what next year's team should look out for?
Corbett: We are?defiantly?losing some of our core next year ,but I believe the team will still be strong. ?There are a?couple?guys on the team who?didn't?play in very many?tournaments?this year, but have real potential. ?Also our freshmen had great years and showed they can compete at the college level. ?Also Roche is one of the best, if not the best, players in NESCAC and I expect him to have another great season next year.
Highduchek: There is no way to?replace the three graduating seniors from this year's team and the contributions they've made this year and throughout their careers here.? However, three of the five who played at Middlebury are returning.??We only have one new freshman coming in the fall, so we're going to need everyone to pick up their games a little bit if we are to have a successful season next year.? Any good tournament golfers on campus that we don't know about are welcome to express their interest!