Where college students go for golf

College Golfer Falls in Love with the Sport

By Travis Richardson

Nikos Pavlis is a junior at the University of South Carolina, majoring in Business Management and minoring in European Studies. A soccer player and college golfer, Pavlis serves as the Regional Coordinator of the Southeast region, and formerly as the South Carolina Club Golf President.

What have you been up to this summer?
This summer I am working for Westwood Country Club. I am an assistant to all the head professionals. I help with tournaments, set-up, scoring, anything the members need. I help in the pro shop, and help with bags. I work there 5 hours a day, 7 days a week.When I am not working, they give us employee benefits, so I try to get out as much as possible and play.

I am going to Greece in Late July to visit my family for about 3 weeks. I didn’t have a chance to go last summer. I usually just play soccer with friends, I haven’t played any golf in Greece, but that is on the bucket list.

Tell me about your background with soccer
I’ve been playing soccer since I was born, I played in high school, I played academy. I didn’t really try to play soccer in college, I decided to focus on academics. It would have been difficult choosing between golf and soccer. I played golf for fun when I was young, and I started taking it seriously in middle school. I wanted to play a fall sport, and at my school golf was in the fall, so I tried out and I loved it. Today I probably play more golf than soccer.

What are your goals for the region this fall?
My goals are sending two or three teams back to Nationals. I think we have the best region in the nation. Keeping that level of play as high as possible, and making our tournaments as competitive as possible is the goal. I think having a good pace of play, and being able to advertise that we have the fastest pace of play would go a long way. I want to keep adding more schools. The Southeast has a lot of schools, so there is a lot of potential. We want to get individuals from small schools playing, as well as getting the teams that used to play back.

**Nikos Pavlis is the Regional Coordinator of the Southeast Region. Contact him on Twitter @NCCGASOUTHEAST

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