Monday, October 20, 2008

Sophomore Graham Brockington talks about the upcoming season & his injury



After losing to UCLA by one shot at nationals last year we all left campus with a bad taste in our mouths. However, coming back to campus and seeing all of my teammates again is a great and exciting feeling. We are all even hungrier for the title this year than we were last year.

For me, the prospect of playing golf again and playing well is really exciting. At the end of last year I dislocated my middle finger and had to have surgery that kept me away from golf until August. I had to wear a splint in order to keep that finger straight and in turn, spent most of the summer trying to figure out why people kept giving me such nasty looks as I drove on the highway holding my middle finger up in the air. Now that I am healthy I am enjoying competing with the guys. As excited as I was to arrive here last year, I like it here even more now that I am a sophomore and am much more comfortable with school, golf, and the surrounding area.

My goal was to come in to school and qualify to play in the first tournament in Chicago. Unfortunately I fell short of qualifying, however I got better every round and if it weren’t for one bad round I may have qualified.

While we were disappointed with our finishes in Chicago and Palm Springs, I still feel great about the potential of our team, especially with Joe Bramlett back. He gives our team a huge lift on and off the course and I look for him to have a great season.

This season I look forward to improving even more than last year and to hopefully contribute more and more to the team as the season progresses. I am just trying to make the most out of my time here and to learn something new every day. I know it is only October but I can’t wait to see what June has in store for us.

Graham Brockington, Sophomore

Monday, October 6, 2008

Freshman Wilson Bowen talks about his first weeks at Stanford



Editor's Note: Wilson Bowen is a Freshman from Winnetka, IL. He won the 2007 AJGA Cleveland Junior Championship
and finished fourth in 2006 and 2007 at the Illinois State High School Golf Championship. Above photo courtesy of Stanford Athletics.

"I’ve had a great first couple weeks at Stanford. This really is the best place to play college golf. Just in the last week we've been lucky enough to play the Peninsula Club, the California Club, and San Francisco Golf Club, all of which are incredible courses. Special thanks to all of the alumni who made this possible. The alumni support here at Stanford is remarkable. We had a great turnout at the Cardinal Classic and I really enjoyed playing with Mr. and Mrs. Gifford and their guests. They were even able to take home some hardware as our team shot a ridiculous 28 under par 42.

Our newly opened facility, The Siebel Varsity Training Center, is incredible, and definitely one of the premier facilities in the world. Our alumni once again went above and beyond to put us in the best possible situation to succeed. The Siebel Center provides us with limitless opportunities for practice and improvement, and I look forward to spending many days and practice sessions working around the facility. We’ve had some great practices out there and I know that we’ll be able to maximize our practice and improvement with this new tool.



I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my teammates. We have a great group of guys this year and a lot of camaraderie. We are a team in the truest sense of the word. My teammates have done all they can to make sure that my transition to college life goes smoothly, and I look forward to competing and working with them for the remainder of the year. We have an incredibly talented and deep squad, and I know that with some hard work we can accomplish some special things this year. We’ve been playing some great golf lately and I’m excited to see how we’ll play at The Prestige next week. Go Card!"

Wilson Bowen, Freshman