2007-08 Golf Outlook
Coach Jack Jensen begins his 31st season as Guilford’s golf coach with the challenge of replacing two of the Quakers’ most prolific golfers in recent history, Colin Clark ’07 and Joseph Poplin ’07. The duo anchored the Guilford teams that made four straight trips to the NCAA Championships and won the Division III title in 2005. Clark, the 2005 NCAA Division III national champion, finished in a tie for second at the 2006 Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Championship, graduated with three medalist honors and Guilford’s fourth-lowest career stroke average (75.010). Poplin, a two-time PING All-American like Clark, posted Guilford’s lowest stroke average in both 2006 and 2007 and was the team’s most valuable player both years.
Guilford once again started the 2006-07 season ranked in the top five of the GCAA/Bridgestone Coaches Poll and remained among the top spots for most of the year before finishing seventh at the 2007 NCAA Division III Tournament. “It was a disappointing finish last year at the NCAA Tournament,” Jensen said. “We were in fifth place after the first two rounds and in a good position going into the weekend, but we were inconsistent down the stretch, and that cost us the opportunity to challenge for the national championship. We have national-oriented goals; just winning the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) and getting to the NCAA Championships is not enough for us.”
With Clark and Poplin lost to graduation, Jensen has at least two possible vacancies to fill in the fall. The Quakers return a corps of experienced student-athletes with NCAA Tournament experience, so Jensen now must weave his veterans with a solid recruiting class and put the Quakers in position to contend for a third national title in seven years. Sophomores Brian Creghan and Peter Latimer join junior Burton Wood as Guilford’s top returners. All three competed in last year’s NCAA Championships. Latimer, the ODAC Rookie of the Year, averaged 75.62 strokes per round in his first season at Guilford, and during the summer won the prestigious Royal Dornoch Golf Carnegie Shield Tournament in his native Scotland.
A small, but talented recruiting class joins the veterans. Jensen hopes the class holds another star, which includes local freshmen Jonathan Wade from Grimsley High School and Bryan Colquitt from nearby Andrews High School in High Point. Rounding out the freshman class is Liam McGowan, a friend and former schoolmate of Latimer at the Madras School in Scotland. Wade has been impressive in fall qualifying rounds, while Colquitt and McGowan will push the veterans for a spot in the top five.
The combination of young talent and experience make Guilford a dangerous team this year. Jensen believes the Quakers are good enough to play with the best in the country and sets the stage for a very interesting qualifying season. Jensen holds open qualifying only before the fall season with occasional playoffs for one or two spots during the year.
The ODAC Tournament moved to a three-day 54-hole championship format in 2006-07. Jensen was happy with the change and believes the three-day format allows for the best and most consistent team to win the title. This is especially important since the winner of the ODAC Golf Tournament earns the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships. The remaining bids to the 35-team tournament will be given on an at-large basis, based on a squad’s strength of schedule and regional ranking. “The automatic qualifier is still a growing process in golf,” said Jensen. “I’m not thrilled that there are quality teams that are left out of the NCAA selection process because of it, but hopefully it will raise the level of golf across the country among the Division III conferences.”
Guilford has played one of the nation's toughest schedules in Division III for the past several years, and this season is no different. “One of the reasons why Guilford attracts great players every year is because we play a competitive schedule on top-rated golf courses,” Jensen said. “The top of our conference is tough once again and the teams we see each week are very good. Washington and Lee, Methodist, Oglethorpe and Huntingdon should all be ranked this year, and we’ll most likely see these teams several times during the season.” The Quakers open the fall season at the Sea Trail Intercollegiate in September before embarking on four October tournaments including the Greensboro Invitational, the Tom O’Briant Memorial, the Gordin Collegiate Classic, and the Oglethorpe Invitational. Guilford rounds out the spring with stops at the Johnny Palmer Memorial, the Pine Needles Invitational, the Marine Federal Credit Union Intercollegiate, and the Emory Spring Invitational before finishing the regular season at the ODAC Tournament in Virginia.