By Harrison Leone
Sports Assignment Editor
The men’s golf team can look to the incipient 2012-13 season with an attitude of growth and progress. Following an eighth-place finish in last season’s Atlantic 10 tournament, Coach John Powers said he and the team performed well in the final tournament of the campaign.
“I felt like that was a pretty good reflection of where we were for most of the season,” Powers said. “To be able to go down there like we did and beat five of the A-10 teams, we were pretty happy with that.”
The conclusion of last season saw the team say good-bye to two senior leaders, Brian McKenna and Greg Horvath. McKenna was one of the team’s strongest assets last season, carding below-par scores in three tournaments while averaging 3.6 strokes over par for the year. Horvath scored below par in one of the team’s matchups last season and averaged 6.89 strokes over par.
“Obviously, there’s a pretty big hole to fill with them graduating,” Powers said.
While their production and veteran leadership will be missed, Powers voiced confidence that his team will be able to make up the difference.
“With our team, I don’t think there will be too much of a drop off. Greg and Brian were certainly great guys to have in that role, but overall, we have really good team chemistry,” Powers said. “We’ve got Scott Brady and Chris Mackey as the two seniors now, and as a team, we’re coming together nicely.”
Part of the benefits of having a close-knit team is the seamless addition of new players. The team will welcome two freshmen this season — Trent McPherson of Morgantown, W.Va. and Evan Sommer of Pittsburgh, Pa. Powers said so far they have been handling the transition from high school to the collegiate level well.
“The freshman players seem to be adapting very well to college, and the older guys can get a lot of credit for that.” Powers said. “They’re both very accomplished junior golfers, they both have high expectations for themselves and we expect to see good things from them in the future.”
McPherson and Sommer will be added to a squad that welcomes back the seniors Brady and Mackey, junior Dan Dunnigan and sophomores Patrick Milkovich, Darren Simons and Josh Stauffer.
Stauffer will hope to follow up on a stellar freshman season during which he posted the lowest average score against par of the team at 2.69. For his accomplishments, which included being named A-10 Rookie of the Week three times, Stauffer was awarded the Frank Fuhrer Collegiate Player of The Year Award. The award is given to the area’s most outstanding collegiate golf player by the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association. Powers said he does not expect any sophomore slump from his standout player.
“When you’re at such a high level like Josh is, it’s hard to see measurable progress, but it definitely seems like Josh has improved over the summer,” Powers said. “His scores have gotten lower and lower on a consistent basis, so I think he’s ready to have a strong second year.”
With Stauffer at the helm, Powers said he believes his team is in line to have a strong season.
“In terms of specific tournaments, we want to get the Little Three championship back in our hands. We usually perform well at the Keenan Invitational as well, we’ll hope to repeat our victory there,” Powers said. “It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where you want to finish, but we certainly have the talent to compete in the top half of every event, if not in the top three or four.”
leonehj11@bonaventure.edu
