A Quick Round with the Golf Teams

It’s a bye week for the Fall’s Biggest Sport- no I’m not talking about the undefeated Top Ten soccer team, I’m referencing the defeated American football team. To cleans your palate, here’s a quick look at the golf programs.

The Fall is the off season for golf programs, in that the championship season comes at the end of the Spring Semester. However, teams still compete and get better because their players- elite level amateurs- will compete no matter what.

John Augenstein: the Flowing Lettuce, the Grace

Speaking of elite level Amateurs, John Augenstein is having himself a couple of months. The senior for the men’s team was 2019 First Team All SEC, Third Team All American, Runner Up at the US Am (after dominating the field until the last four holes), and ranking 14th in the WAGR.

He was chosen to the Walker Cup Team, and sank the putt that gave the US Team their first victory on European soil since 2007.

Rebuilding in 2019

On the team front, the Men’s Team placed DFL at the Carmel Cup, hosted at Pebble Beach from August 30-September 1. Don’t feel bad for them because they were playing golf at Pebble Beach while the rest of their classmates were having panic attacks as they received syllabi outlining the load of work for the coming semester.

The Dores were without Auggie for Walker Cup reasons, but also playing four golfers who did not see regular run last year: Michael Shears, William Moll, Matthew Reidel, and Luke Zieman.

The Commodores lost Will Gordon and Patrick Martin to graduation. Those are pretty big losses because both are playing on the Canadian Tour, Gordo is 20th and PMart at 94th in just two months of competition. It could be a rebuilding year for the program, but it also has the potential for Auggie to win the Haskins.

However, let’s end with the Women’s Team who are looking to improve on an already stellar 2018 season.

Really, Really Good

With five wins, including an NCAA Regional and birth to the NCAA Finals, the Women’s team returns every player except Courtney Zeng. Sophomore Auston Kim and Junior Morgan Baxedale made it to the match play portion at the US Am. Kim also qualified for the US Open. Additionally, Senior Abbey Carlson represented the US at the Palmer Cup after the season’s end.

Currently, the Commodores at T-1 at their season opener in Hanahan, South Carolina. After two rounds, they are -15 as a team, tied with Florida and Wake Forest.

Auston Kim is leading the field at -10, four shots ahead of the second place golfer, while Carlson is T-4 with a score of -4. Third for the Dores is Louise Yu at T-11 (-2). Notably, Yu has the best Twitter (@yuutheman) handle of anyone on the team, and maybe in the Athletic Department.

Final round play starts at 9:00AM today.