Guilford Golf Report, Summer 2009

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Guilford College golfers past, present and future have enjoyed success on the links this summer. Here's a quick rundown of some of their accomplishments as of Aug. 5.

Head coach Jack Jensen will be inducted into the Wake Forest University Sports Hall of Fame in September. Jensen, a 1961 Wake Forest graduate, played one season on the Demon Deacons' basketball team before embarking on a successful basketball and golf coaching career. Jensen coached Guilford's men's basketball team for 29 years and amassed a school-record 386 coaching victories. His 1972-73 basketball team captured the NAIA national championship and featured future NBA players M.L. Carr '73, World B. Free '76 and Greg Jackson '74. Jensen's predecessor as Guilford men's basketball coach and former Wake Forest teammate, Jerry Steele, will also be inducted into the hall Sept. 18-19. On the links, Jensen has guided Guilford to national championships in 1989 (NAIA), 2002 (NCAA Division III) and 2005 (NCAA Division III). He is also a member of the Guilford College, Guilford County Sports, Golf Coaches Association of America, NAIA and North Carolina Sports Halls of Fame.

Rising senior Peter Latimer, the reigning Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year, reached the quarterfinal round of the 2009 Scottish Amateur Championships in his native country. Playing for the St. Andrews New Club, Latimer won five matches to reach the quarterfinal round before falling to fourth-seeded Paul O'Hara, a three-time finalist in the event, 4 and 3. While Latimer has reached the match play rounds of past championships, this year's result at Royal Troon is his finest to date and helped him climb 49 spots into 579th in the R&A World Amateur Golf Rankings.

Noah Ratner, an incoming freshman at Guilford, won two gold medals in the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Caesarea, Israel. The international event features top Jewish athletes and Ratner took the individual junior golf crown by shooting 220 over three rounds. He won the 29-man event over Israel's Assaf Cohen by one stroke and helped the United States to a five-stroke win over Israel in the team competition. Ratner, the 2009 Citizen-Times Western North Carolina High School Player of the Year, graduated from Asheville High School in May.

Jeff Osberg '06, a member of the Quakers' 2005 national champions, qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championships Aug. 24-30 in Tulsa, Oklahoma by winning a 112-player qualifying event in southeastern Pennsylvania. He shot 69-71-140 to win the qualifier and reach the U.S. Amateur for the first time in four tries. Click here for the story courtesy of the Golf Association of Philadelphia.

Osberg, 25, works as an accountant in Wilmington, Del., and was the 2004 Delaware State Amateur champion.