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 

Sophomore Secrets from Swegs

So far my time at Stanford has been an amazing experience. I have been able to expand my horizons by taking interesting (and challenging) classes, ranging from math to computer science to international relations, all with an excellent faculty. I have had the unique opportunity to interact with countless students who managed to get into one of the most sought after universities in the world, as well as some graduates whose ideas and determination have helped change the world. And on top of that, I’ve managed to improve my golf game drastically, going from not making a single start my entire freshman fall to teeing it up at the National Championship last spring. But as a freshman, I was, as Coach Ray likes to say, “drinking from the fire hose.” Classes, golf, practice, workouts—it all flew by. Now as a sophomore (who thinks he knows what he’s doing) I have my feet under me a little bit more, and I’ve had some time to reflect on what I’ve learned the last year and a half:

--Don’t challenge Dom to a game of basketball. Or a game of any sport whose name ends in the word “ball”. Or the versa climber. Or a political debate. He will win.

--If you want to have the best-prepared breakfast possible at a college golf event, track down the kitchen staff and tell them you have a dairy allergy. You will be taken care of. (Thanks to senior David Boote for leading by example here.)

--If you go out to team dinner and don’t know what to order, have what V (Viraat Badhwar) is having. It will be the best thing on the menu.

--If you don’t know where Mav is, he’s probably at Siebel practicing.

--If you hear a country song on the radio, Brad knows its name. And the band name. And when the song was written. And when the band formed. And potentially even the age of the lead singer.

--Don’t judge a book by its cover. He might not look it, but Tank can put away food like you cannot believe. Legend has it that he single handedly put an “All you can eat sushi” restaurant out of business.

--Don’t challenge Brandon and Isaiah to a team competition if they get to be on the same team. (Mav and V found this one out the hard way).

--Sit next to Chris in Econ lecture. If you get bored with the lecturer, his twitter feed can be a nice distraction.

by Jeffrey Swegle