Author: Kelly Neukom
While many people think of golf as an old man’s sport, the Occidental golf team insists that it is anything but. “Golf is a challenging sport, even though many people don’t even consider it to be one,” Tori Leon (first-year) said. “Just because you don’t run around a field doesn’t mean that it does not require physical strength. A competitive round of golf is grueling both mentally and physically. We have to train the same as every other sport and practice takes hours and hours of the day.”
The team started its season on Feb. 12 in a match against Chapman and La Sierra. The team lost to Chapman by a mere two strokes (325-323), but came in second over La Sierra by four strokes (325-329). The victory was short-lived, however, after the team finished sixth out of seven in a tournament last Wednesday. Although discouraged, the players are nonetheless optimistic about the season, as many of the players are young and need to play a few matches before “the rust comes off,” Alex Safransky (sophomore) said.
“I think we can do a lot better,” captain Aaron Steinberg (senior) said. “For a lot of these guys, it was their first college match, and I think once everyone gets settled in we will do better.”
The team is young; in fact, there are only two seniors members-Steinberg and John Morris. The other three returning players are all sophomores (Tom Logan, Richard Highsmith and Safransky) with three first-years rounding out the roster (Nick Schradle, Ryan Ferguson and Leon).
“The team is comprised of mostly new players, but a lot of them have been friends of ours before the team,” Steinberg said. “The players who have already been on the team are really close and it has not been hard to bring the new players in and make them feel welcome.”
Even Leon, the only female of the group, feels included by the veterans.
“Being a first-year, it’s nice to have the guidance and advice from the experienced players,” she said. “They help you out when you need them and they’re there for you at a moment’s notice. That’s what a team is about. Playing in junior tournaments, it is different because you are in it alone. Being part of a team means something more.”
The players are also complimentary about their coaches, Erik Johnson (who doubles as the football coach in the fall) and Matt Yamashida (who meets with the team once a week at the driving range all year long and films their swings).
“Coach [Johnson] is great because he is a good mix of being passive and stern,” Steinberg said. “But, generally speaking, he is pretty lighthearted about things and lets us do our thing when he feels we’ve got it under control.”Leon thinks both coaches balance each other nicely and give the team the support it needs.
“Our coaches believe in us,” she said. “Coach Johnson is adamant in guiding us to victory. Coach Matt, whenever we need him, comes to work with us and fine-tunes our game. He knows how to rally the troops.”
Johnson enjoys the juxtaposition of coaching football in the fall and golf in the spring, as football is “one of the truly great team sports” while golf is “all about individual accomplishment.”
“It gives me the best of both worlds,” Johnson said. “The approach to both sports is completely different, but the desire to be good is the same. Golfers have to be much more self-motivated. I don’t think golfers think about ‘support’ the way other larger sports do.”
This is Johnson’s third season as the head golf coach, and he believes the team this year can go farther than it has in the past.
“We have a great group of dedicated young players who will only improve over the next few months,” he said. “In addition, we have great leadership from our only senior, Aaron Steinberg. We definitely have the ability and depth to significantly improve over the last two seasons. With a few more incoming players, we should really be able to make some noise in our conference over the next few years.”
Johnson is also excited about the possibility of a women’s golf team for the 2008-09 season, now that Leon has blazed the trail for other females.
“If we can attract a good group of female golfers to Oxy over the next few years . . . watch out!” he said.
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