Where college students go for golf

The NCCGA Capitol Region hosted its second Spring Regional Tournament on April 6-7 2013 at Swan Point Yacht and Country Club in Issue, MD. The idyllic setting of the course among marshes, creeks and ponds near the mouth of the Potomac River provided a great backdrop for our event. The field teed off at 1:00 on Saturday under blue skies and nice conditions. Despite busy schedules, American, Georgetown, Old Dominion, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland, James Madison, and Towson club golf teams made it out to the event.

The NCCGA South Region finished off their regular season with a great weekend of golf at Brookstone Meadows in Anderson, S.C. We were lucky to have wonderful weather both Saturday and Sunday, with sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s and 70s. The course played to 6685 yards with a rating of 72.3 and a slope of 130. The head pro at Brookstone Meadows is Coby Gambrell and he was a great host. The club golf teams present were Clemson, Emory, East Tennessee State, Furman, Kennesaw State, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee-Knoxville, Wake Forest, and Vanderbilt.

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March Madness has inspired a new qualifying structure for the Spring 2013 NCCGA National Championship. With nine Regions, over 100 clubs from Boston to Los Angeles, and thousands of members, NCCGA's wildcard system ranks all of the club golf teams which competed in the NCCGA Spring Regionals. Previously, only teams which finished first or second in their Region qualified for nationals; with the new changes, fourteen teams will now travel to Purdue University to compete on the Kampen Course on April 27th and 28th.

As a game that is a luxury item to most, golf rides the economic roller coaster just like any other industry. Golf's economy is comparable to many other prominent industries; according to Golf 20/20, the total economic impact of golf in America was $176.8 billion in 2011, approximately 74 percent the size of television broadcasting, cable, and other subscription programming, and approximately 83 percent of the motion picture and video industries as well. Within the golf industry, the millennial generation, or Gen Y as we will call it, has increased spending by 27% in the past year alone, whereas all other demographics decreased by 20%.

So what should all this mean to you?

Spring is officially upon us; courses are slowly starting to open up and golfers are awakening from their long, golf-less winter hibernation. For me, it’s difficult to adjust having grown up in beautiful Monterey, California. Nonetheless, it’s a concession I knew I had to make in order to study in New England.

We sat down with club golf Medalist from Northeast Regional #2, freshman Mark Bondi from the University of Pittsburgh.

While everyone is crying out "It's Tiger's time!" or "Let's go Phil!", I am singing a different tune as the Masters approaches. Everyone loves a great underdog story (if you don't agree then go watch The Greatest Game Ever Played... it'll change your world). College golf players that make their way into the Masters and play alongside legendary professionals, especially those still in college, are the epitome of underdogs.

Following a victory at the first Northeast regional at Birdsfoot two weeks before, the University of Delaware college golf club team carried the momentum into Bedford Springs to take Regional #2 and earn an automatic bid to the college golf club Nationals. The second Regional was held at the Bedford Springs Old Course, on the property of the beautiful Omni Bedford Springs Resort in Southern Pennsylvania.

The Northeast region of the NCCGA opened the Spring 2013 college golf club semester at Birdsfoot Golf Club this past weekend, in Freeport, Pennsylvania. Having to endure cold temperatures and wet course conditions, the college golf club players were dealt a tough hand as the rolling hills of Birdsfoot left minimal opportunities to score.

Playing at the lengthy 6,703 yard setup, a slope of 134 and a rating of 72, Birdsfoot hosted the following seven college golf club teams: University of Delaware, Duquesne University, Robert Morris, Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, and SUNY Buffalo. This was the first college golf club regional tournament since the region known formerly as the Northeast divided in two, forming the New England region and the new Northeast region that consists of schools from Delaware to Western Pennsylvania.

Sean Heintzelman is a college golf club member of the Maryland team. Heintzelman won the Capitol Regional Tournament #1, and agreed to do an interview about his golf experiences this season.

Congrats on earning Medalist honors at the college club golf Capitol Regional Tournament #1 Sean. How sweet is that new trophy?

- I think it's a nice quality trophy. In the future though you should say first place, since medalist often means placed 1st-3rd. Outside of that it's great for drinking too!

You've been a strong performer in the Capitol Region for the past few seasons, what would you like to accomplish that you have not yet been able to?

The South Region kicked off the 2013 college golf club season at Crystal Lake Golf & Country Club in Hampton, Georgia. The first round took place on March 2^nd in extremely tough conditions, and carried over to the morning of March 3^rd due to darkness. The course was playing 6790 yards with a slope of 140 and a rating of 72.7. The temperature wasin the 30's with a stiff wind and snow flurries.

The conditions and course for the second California Regional Tournament were like night and day when compared to the first college golf club tournament of the season. The second regional tournament brought golfers to Indian Palms Country Club in beautiful Palm Springs, where the weather was much warmer and the course was even narrower. The first round was played on Saturday, March 2^nd on the Royal and Mountain courses. These two courses had a combined yardage of 6316 yards with a rating of 71.7 and slope 128. The weather was sunny and hot, creating a perfect golfing environment. The field was composed of 4 teams:

As a former Division 3 golfer for Amherst College, a small liberal arts school in the Western MA, I fully understand how difficult it is to score low in late March and early April when the first tournaments of the spring season typically occur. While the grass is only just starting to grow in patches and the greens are bumpier than riding on the back seat of an old school bus, what makes spring college golf most challenging is not the suspect scoring conditions, but instead, our golf games which take a little time to blossom after such a snowy, cold, and long winter.

With every PGA tour player’s success comes an extensive competitive tournament history. College golf in particular has helped sharpen the games of the world's best players to get them Tour ready. Let's take a look back and where three of the PGA Tour’s best were in their college years: (Rankings from GolfWeek)

Capitol Region 1 - Sycamore Creek Tournament Summary

The NCCGA Capitol Region hosted its first Spring Regional Tournament on February 23-24 2013 at Sycamore Creek Golf Course in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia. The early timing of the tournament made the 6,269 yard, Par 70 layout an ideal fit for a field of 76 golfers, many of whom had very little practice under their belts coming off the winter. The field teed off at 1:00 on Saturday narrowly having missed a major storm system that would have certainly wiped out play.