Golf tees off title hunt

The No. 3 ranked Skidmore golf team wrapped up its regular season and is looking ahead to the NCAA Championship Tournament, which will be held in Port St.. Lucie, FL, this May.

Thanks to a generous donation from Skidmore Golf alumnus Robert Spellman, '86, the team acquired top-of-the-line indoor training equipment, which allowed the players to keep their swings warm during the cold winter months, an advantage usually reserved for Southern golfers.

Hoping to capitalize on the success of the fall and to challenge the team's abilities, Coach David Bakyta entered the team in Division I tournaments. Though the team's run of first-place victories was cut-short by Division I competition, the players and Bakyta feel that they have had a successful season.

"I'm incredibly proud of our record so far this year," Bakyta said. "Each player made a commitment to get better and I think everyone has. Our fall season might have been the best in our team history."

Co-Captain Chris DeJohn, '10 expressed a similar attitude toward his team's performance this past year.

"Overall I feel the season has been successful," DeJohn said. "We won all but one of our tournaments in the fall and we had our highest finish at the Division 1 George Washington Invitational in the team history... Personally I set my goals a bit higher for this season, buts as a whole I performed well, and learned a lot from the season thus far."

Though the team has closed out its regular season, postseason challenges still remain. The team will play through and compete in the NCAA Championship Tournament, where it placed fourth last year.

"Nationals always seem to have a way of providing unforeseeable challenges, but we had a good look at our competition at the Gordin Classic in the fall, and this past weekend at Rochester," DeJohn said. "I think we have as good of a chance as any team at the tournament and we've seen the courses a few months ago on spring break, so it's just a matter of putting it together and staying in the moment."

"Our biggest challenge in the national tournament is ourselves," DaSilva said. "We have to manage our games and grind for six days in the Florida heat.  We are looking to go down there and play our games, and let everything else take care of itself.  If we do that, there is no doubt in my mind that we can win that tournament."

Though the tournament looms large on the team's horizon, the 12 players must first compete against one another in an inter-squad shoot-out to determine which five will compete on the national level. Despite the contention inherent in inter-squad play the coach and captains feel that the team will handle the match well.

"Inevitably people are going to be disappointed if they don't make the top five," Bakyta said.  "However, what matters is what you do with that emotion. The greatest learning experiences come from losing.  Hopefully, it will motivate those players to keep improving."

"I think every one of us looks to win the national championship at the beginning of the year, and that's what were all focused on right now," DaSilva said. "But for beyond this year, I would just like to see everyone get better and improve, cause that's essentially what we try to do every day."