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Villanova's Stahle looks to capture a National Championship

By Mike Devlin

 

Villanova club golf comes into the National Championship ranked 7th in the country and is seemingly the darkhorse of this year's tournament. The Wildcats certainly wouldn't be in the position they are in without the leadership and strong play of senior Tyler Stahle.  Nova was able to capture both Philly regional tournaments this semester, Stahle being the medalist in both tourneys shooting a day-two score of 135 (-7) in the first and 140 (-2) in the second. The senior is now the NCCGA all-time leader in medalist finishes (8), 1 of 33 players all-time to record a hole-in-one in tournament play, T-4th in total eagles and is the all-time leader in leader in total birdies with 100. All things considered Stahle is arguably the most accomplished NCCGA player in history and seeks to add one more important piece to his resume: a National Championship. 

We were able to catch up with Tyler for a quick Q&A leading up to Nationals:

Q. What’s helped the Nova team both with participation and competition?

I've been around to see our leadership change a few times. I think what has made it a great club was having the competitive aspect and making Nationals to attract some good golfers we wouldn't have otherwise gotten. However, outside our core group of competitive players we have another 20-25 golfers that are more "social" members who are great to play with.  The hybrid of recreational and competitive players makes for an ideal club.

Q. How many Nationals will this be for you?

Well, I played at Disney, Bryan Park, TPC San Antonio, and Dancing Rabbit-- so this Nationals in Vegas will be my fifth. Nationals are some of my favorite club golf memories, being able to play those great courses is always awesome. 

Q. What are you looking forward to this Nationals? Any predictions? 

Personally, it's always great to go out and play a championship caliber course like Paiute. I'm also just excited about competing in general and I think we have a pretty good chance this year, I think it's the best we’ve been ranked heading into Nationals.

This is the deepest team we've have and we’re excited to have a chance to win. I think we're unique in the fact that we have wide variety of golfers.  Some guys are shorter off the tee but have a great short game and then some of the bigger hitters. We look forward to it.

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