Viraat's Vivacious Recap

As we begin our spring season, this is a good time to reflect on our Fall Tournament results. Our team ended the fall season ranked 5th and we saw a lot of great golf from the guys.

We have one of the deepest teams in the nation this year and I believe that any five out of our ten guys can play against and beat most teams we compete against. Our freshmen have done a great job adjusting to college life and are contributing a lot to our team already. As a result, we have had some of the most competitive qualifiers this fall, which prepared the resulting traveling squad very well for the tournaments.

We started our fall at the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invite at Olympia Fields CC in Chicago. Mav flew straight to the tournament from the Walker Cup in England, where he represented the US in a 2 day match against Great Britain and Ireland. The team played really solid all week and finished 4^th in one of the most competitive fields of the year. Mav went on to win the tournament individually for the 2^nd time in a row after a low 65 in the 2^nd round.

Our next event was the Swoosh Invitational at Pumpkin Ridge GC in Oregon. It was the first tournament for one of our freshmen, Brandon Wu. The whole team had some great contributions the entire week and we finished 4^th once again. Individually, Mav was the highest finisher at T-5 and David finished T-19.

We had a quick turnaround to prepare for the US Collegiate, at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, GA. The team was in the mix for the first two days, but a tough last day meant we finished the week in 6^th. We learned a lot from the week about and sealing the deal when we are in contention down the line in the Spring. A last day 67 helped Mav tie for his 2^nd win of the season and his 8^th win in 2 seasons.

We finished of the fall at The Gifford Collegiate at La Costa Legends GC in Carlsbad, CA hosted by UCLA. Freshman Isaiah Salinda made his debut in San Diego and had a solid week to help the team to a 2^nd place finish. We were in contention for the majority of the week, but a great last round by Washington meant we finished just short of the mark. Mav finished with another last day 67 to tie for his 3^rd win of the season out of 4 events. David added another solid tournament to his fall with a T-5 finish.

by Viraat Badhwar