The Emory men's golf team began its spring portion of their season with a dual match against Oglethorpe University.
Led by Head Coach John Sjoberg, the Eagles were able to begin a smooth transition into the heart of their spring season after playing fairly well in the fall.
"It was a great test early in the year to see where our games are at," Sjoberg wrote in an email to the Wheel. "It was a great experience for the freshmen as for most of them, it was their first competitive round as an Eagle. Now that they have their feet wet, I am excited to see how they can improve from here."
The Eagles played in a format similar to a match play event, which allowed every player on both teams to play an 18-hole match against each other. The lowest score after each round would earn a point for their team.
The two teams were broken up into A and B teams. Team A consisted of Johnathan Chen, sophomore Alex Wunderlich, senior David Collura and juniors Alec Berens and Will Roth.
Team B consisted of sophomore Aaron Weiner and freshmen Andrew Namkoong, Vince Sirianni, Jack Williams and Jonathan Gerrard.
While the Eagles were able to split the Team A matches 2.5-2.5, the B Team could only come up with two wins out of six matches.
"We did not get off to as strong of a start as we would have liked," Chen wrote in an email to the Wheel. "I think the only thing we can do is focus on the positives from this event and get ready for Callaway Gardens next week. We have all been working hard in the off-season and getting prepared for this semester."
The match was initially shortened due to a frost delay amidst atypically cold Atlanta weather. There was a strong north-to-south wind throughout the match.
"We were able to make quite a few birdies in the tough conditions, now we need to lessen the mistakes and limit the big numbers," Sjoberg wrote in an email to the Wheel. "This will put us in a position to compete with the best teams in the country."
The team is the No. 14-ranked team in Division III and the defending University Athletic Association (UAA) champions.
"I am really excited to see what we can do this spring and ultimately at the National Championships this year," Chen wrote.
Coach Sjoberg understands this is the first match in a long season and wants to make sure the team takes away both the positives and the negatives from this tournament.
The men's golf team will return to the course on Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3 when the team competes in the regular season opening tournament at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga.
– By Brian Chavkin
