As the snow slowly begins to melt away, the green fairways of the Robert Trent Jones Golf course will slowly emerge from beneath the white stuff, meaning only that springtime is upon us and golf is in the air.
The golf team is set to kick off the spring half of its season with the Towson Tournament on March 31. The team competed in four tournaments during the fall leg of the season, finishing at Binghamton on Halloween.
There are some new faces for the golfers, not only on the links, but in the cart as well. With a strong and improving freshman class, professional golf instructor Matt Baughan has taken the head coaching reigns for the Red.
Baughan has been a golf-pro for ten years and came to East Hill as an interim coach in April of 2000. Baughan has worked at several golf courses as an instructor, and has been on the Cornell golf staff since 1997 as an assistant.
Before coming to East Hill, he worked at the Persimmon Hill Golf Course in Tampa, Fla. from 1996 to 1997. He oversaw the inventory of merchandise and gave both group and individual lesson, polishing his coaching saavy.
Prior to that, in 1994, he was the assistant golf professional for the Laurel View Country Club in Hamden, Conn. There he directed all the sales in the pro shop and buying. In addition, he was in charge of the conception and promotion of tournaments. This honesd the management skills he brings to the Cornell golf program.
Baughan brings some playing experience as well. He was a professional tournament player from 1994-1997 on the Moonlight Golf Tour.
The team, consisting of 10 student golfers, has three freshmen that are poised to lead the team down the road to success.
Matt Rymer, a Suffern, N.Y., native, stands a trim 5-5, 130, but brings an athletic approach to the game, also being an accomplished tennis player. Sam Grilli and Justin Watzka round out the trio of freshmen.
Three seniors this year lead the Red into action, after a couple of golfers left the team during the fall. Frank Ross and Conor Brownwell are two seniors who have lettered in the Ivies before, along with other senior David Schmid.
Considered one of the best golfers on the team, junior David Nyack already has a varsity letter to his name. Nyack, originally from Bloomington, IL., should only improve the Red’s overall performance.
During the first part of the season, the Red finished in the top 15 in all of its four competitions. The Red will participate in four tournaments during the spring season.
The first is the Towson Tournament on March 30. The Red then travels to Yale for the Yale Tournament. Two weeks later is the Ivy tournament.
The team finishes its season at Penn State on April 27.
Archived article by Josh Vlasto