Everyone can use a little golf help

Q) What is your major, year in school, and what’s in the bag?

Ethan: I am a junior pre-med student majoring in biology here at UGA. My bag consists of:

The NCCGA Atlantic fall semester kicked off this past weekend at the St. Jude Golf Club in Chicora, PA. With a distance totaling over 6,600 yards and a rating of 73.8 and slope of 138, St. Jude proved to be a tough test to all of those competing. A total of six schools participated: University of Pittsburgh, West Virginia University, Youngstown State, Penn State, Duquense University, and Robert Morris University.

Last November on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Sea Island Golf Club I finished my career on the NC State Club Golf Team and membership to the NCCGA. It wasn’t until after graduation in December that I realized how much I was truly going to miss those weekend tournaments and trips with my teammates. 

Broadlands Golf Course--Two schools showed up to the tournament, Colorado School of Mines and the Air Force Academy. Colorado School of Mines had 8 people show up to the tournament and the Air Force had 4 members show up.

According to Merriam-Webster, swagger means "to walk around in a very confident way." With a little tweaking of this word and definition, I came up with my own form that pertains to the golf world: golf swag (verb) - to look "fresh" and confident on the golf course: to be able to perform as good as you look.

The NCCGA Midwest Region hosted its first regional tournament of the 2013 Fall Season at the Legacy Golf Club in Ottawa Lake, Michigan. We had amazing weather for the event and the course could not have been in better shape--the greens rolled like glass and the Arthur Hills’ design provided a fair challenge.

The Capitol Region began play this past weekend at Colonial Heritage Golf Club in Williamsburg, VA. Present were thirteen teams including perennial powerhouse Virginia and the always formidable James Madison and Virginia Tech.

The homoeothermic first Florida Regional Tournament was Stone Creek located in sunny Ocala, Florida. It was a shotgun start on Saturday September 21st at 1 p.m. Stone Creek is situated on 187 acres of Lush countryside, rolling hills, and safety trees. The course features water strategically placed on 14 out of 18 holes making it target golf.

Name: Chris Reina (Texas Regional #1 Medalist)

The NCCGA Central kicked off their first Regional tournament at Adams Pointe in Blue Springs Missouri this past weekend. The weather stayed in the low 70s with a slight breeze, perfect golfing weather.

Green Garden CC--The First ever NCCGA Great Lakes Regional tournament took place at Green Garden Country Club, about 45 minutes southwest of Chicago. The weather was perfect, upper 60’s both days with very little wind.

Waterchase GC--7 teams met in Arlington, TX to begin “The Road to Myrtle Beach” by competing in the first of two NCCGA Texas Regional tournaments this fall. Baylor, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas A & M, SMU, UT-Tyler, and Houston teed it up at Waterchase Golf Course (6900 yds. Par 72) on September 21-22. Sunny skies and light winds provided for great scoring conditions at this hazard filled, perfectly groomed golf course.

As I type, the Tour Championship is under way at East Lake in Atlanta, GA. On the line of course is the $10 million cash payout for the FedEx Cup Champion. If any golfer inside the top five wins this weekend, they are automatically the FedEx Cup Champion.

Par 3's on Tour can vastly differ in length and difficulty and often serve as the "signature hole" that we naturally associate any particular course with. What can appear to be a dinky hole can easily become an eye sore on your scorecard (where someone just deposited $12.50 in the form of 3 brand new Srixon golf balls) or become that coveted "ace" (hole in one).

All seriously competitive golfers must have the capacity to get up and down from difficult situations. Whether it’s short siding yourself in greenside rough or having to fly a trap off the fairway to a tight pin, the flop shot is a must have.