The Pitt State Club Golf team qualified for the National Invitational hosted by the National Collegiate Club Golf Association (NCCGA) from Saturday, April 27 to Sunday, April 28 at the Trophy Club Gold Course in Lebanon, Indiana.
Club Golf attends two tournaments a semester which gives them a chance to qualify to nationals or the National Invitational. There are roughly 20 students on the team who each have a membership to Crestwood Country Club where they practice several times a week as opposed to a structured practice schedule.
There are over 350 schools involved in the NCCGA, according to Oliver Mauk, Content Manager for the NCCGA.
“…What we do is we support non varsity collegiate golf all around the country,” Mauk said. “…We really just try to make sure that every college student that wants to play golf has the ability to do so… So, we have teams… really all around the country coming together in one place to meet each other, hang out with each other, and compete.”
There is not much difference between the National Championship and the National Invitational.
“…The championship is where we have all of our best of the best team and the invitational is also really good teams, but it is more teams that we really want to give the opportunity to compete on a national scale to grow Club Golf on their specific campuses,” Mauk said.
Senior in Marketing and Club Golf president Jake Bradbury believes the team played well at both tournaments.
“We did really well,” Bradbury said. “…We all shot right around 80 and we finished second in both tournaments out of four teams both times… In the first tournament I placed third, so I was an individual medalist… as well as Connor Wilbert (placed) in (the) top ten as well. He was a medalist. So, (we) both finished as medalists in those tournaments…”
Bradbury hopes to see many things from the team at the National Invitational.
“(I hope we) just really to go out, have a good time, and play well honestly,” Bradbury said. “… Our team has only been around… (for) about five years, I think. In that five years, this is the first time that a team has gone to nationals for Pitt State. So, really, we want to go out and represent the university well. There are 12 teams there, so our goal is probably (to) try to finish in the top six. It would be great to finish in that top half.”
Club Golf is always recruiting, and anyone is welcome to join.
“… Anybody is welcome to come play with us,” Bradbury said. “…we are growing pretty quick and we want to keep growing as a team but also growing with the ability of play we have. For instance, we only have a couple guys that shoot really good scores (and) we want to keep bringing in more guys who can play golf at a pretty high level. I know there are lots of people around Pitt State who play a lot of golf. We just want to keep getting our name out there and bringing people to our club.”