North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Golf Swings Into Action
1/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Jan. 7, 2004
Gone are the two All-Americans that led NC State to a 15th place finish at the NCAA Championships last year, but three members of that lineup are back this season for the Wolfpack and with the help of some very talented newcomers, the Pack are showing signs of a very exciting chapter for NC State golf in 2003-04.
"We lose our one and two guys in Justin Walters and Jason Moon, but we return our number three and four guys in Fernando Mechereffe and Stephen Lewton," said Richard Sykes, who returns for his 33rd year as head coach. "The number five spot in our lineup was up in the air last year. We used seven different guys there last year and six of them return. All six of them have improved and I am hoping that between those six and the four talented newcomers that we recruited, we can fill out a pretty good lineup to go with Fernando and Stephen."
The four newcomers are an extremely talented group. Jerry Richardson is a two-time North Carolina state high school champion and participant at the 2002 Junior World Championships. Jeremy Langdale, a junior college transfer, is a two-time NJCAA All-American and the 2003 junior college National Champion. Garry Hill is the 2002 National Junior Champion of South Africa. Jace Strandberg has an outstanding junior record.
Seniors Wesley Horne and John Carter along with juniors Rodney Thomas, Sutton Barbery, Banks Wood and sophomore Andrew Lewis will be competing with the talented newcomers for the remaining three slots in the starting lineup.
The leader of the Pack this year is senior All-America candidate, Fernando Mechereffe.
"Fernando is a very hard worker," Sykes said. "He's not a rah-rah guy, but he will stand up and tell the boys 'c'mon, let's do this, or let's do that.' He will encourage them to work harder than they will themselves sometimes. He's good at showing the younger guys how hard you have to work at it. He won't back off. He's been very hard on himself. You will see a really, really good player in Fernando this year. He's one of the top players in college golf."
Pushing Mechereffe every step of the way this year will be sophomore standout Stephen Lewton.
"Stephen Lewton had a great spring last year, coming in as a freshman in January," Sykes said.
NC State begins the 2003-04 season Sept. 12 at the Tucker Intercollegiate in Albuquerque, N.M. The Wolfpack looks to use its talent and gain the needed experience to put it all together for another run at postseason play.
"With our inexperience, it could take a little time, but I think we're going to be a good team by the end of the year," Sykes said, "a good, solid golf team."
The Wolfpack will be teeing off with the best teams in the country week-in and week-out as NC State has carved out another difficult schedule this season. Last year NC State's schedule was rated the third hardest in the nation by the Sagrin Ratings.
"Our spring schedule is exactly the same as last year's," Sykes said. "The teams you see ranked at the top - we'll be playing against them every week."
