North Carolina State University Athletics
What a Start to the Season (11/4/08)
11/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Editor’s Note: Darren Blair is a senior from Johannesburg, South Africa, on the NC State men’s golf team. Blair finished the fall season ranked No. 60 nationally according to Golf Week, while the Wolfpack is currently ranked No. 19 as a team.
Where do we start? Seeing as this is our first “official” GOLFER’s blog, I believe it would be essential to go over this past season’s highlights and stories! So welcome to a little insider’s guide to the men’s golf team.
The start of my final season here at NC State, which I must say has been the best experience of my life, was not exactly the way I planned it. Tropical Storm Hanna played havoc along the east coast washing out our first day of official competition of the fall season. This didn’t pose too much of a problem for us as we were lucky to stay at a very nice hotel on the Chesapeake Bay. The day was spent at lunch, relaxing in the Jacuzzi and watching college football since we couldn’t get out on the course. Even though the tournament didn’t start out as planned it ended close to it with our team finishing in second place. It was a good start to our campaign to be the No. 1 team in the nation.
After all the weather drama in Maryland that first weekend of the season, who would of thought another full day of tournament play would be washed out in our following tournament in Cape Cod. Once again, we found a way to have some fun while waiting out the weather. We made our way back into Boston, to watch the final regular season game of the MLB season between the Red Sox and the Yankees. What a day, five years ago sitting in South Africa I never could begin to imagine sitting at Fenway eating hot dogs watching the Yankees take on the Red Sox. We eventually got to do what we made our way so far north of the Mason Dixon line to do. On a golf course where we had to walk single file down the fairways because it was so tight, sophomore Matt Hill put on an absolute incredible display of golf, scoring 65-66 blowing the field away. This performance helped our way to another second place finish and what I would say was a pretty good start to the year.
Finally we made our way to Johnston City, Tennessee, for the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate. This was a tournament we had all played before, having a bit of familiarity with the golf course definitely helped us become a little more accustomed to the pretty quick greens. Being my final tournament of my final fall season at NC State, I felt I needed to make a point of why I came to play golf in the United States. Coming off a few weeks of bad ball striking, I still didn’t expect too much. Windy, cold conditions on a demanding golf course is never easy, but things seemed to click and for the first time in a little while things started to feel very comfortable. Things started to work around the greens and for me that is the most important thing when it comes to having a successful tournament. Going into the final round with a one-shot lead, I felt I needed to play aggressive and make some birdies early on and I did making two birdies on holes No. 2 and 8, turning in 34 on the front-nine which definitely calmed the nerves.
Birdies at No. 12 and 14 really put me in a very comfortable position at the top of the leaderboard. The problem was I started to think for the first time in the tournament, which everyone knows thinking isn’t my strongest aspect (hahaha). A couple of three-putts on No. 15 and 16 definitely put me in an uneasy situation going into the brutal No. 17. I played No. 17 and 18 leaking some oil and limping my way into the clubhouse. I somehow managed to stay out in front for my first college win, hopefully the first of many going into my final semester.
I just want to end this first blog (hopefully the writing and stories will get better as our finishes do in the upcoming semester) WELL DONE TO OUR TEAM for an awesome final semester not finishing outside the top 5 in all three tournament!
DARREN BLAIR
