The ETSU men’s golf team kicked off their season on Sept. 21 and 22 in the Scenic City Collegiate in Ooltewah, Tennessee.
The tournament came as a bit of a shock to the team, who did not know they were going to be playing until five or six days beforehand.
“We had to jump through a lot of hoops to go with testing and being in a bubble,” said head coach Jake Amos. “We’ve got a veteran squad. They played well, we just got off to a bad start.”
The golf team finished the tournament with a second-place win after the two-day games.
“We were absolutely terrible the first nine holes,” said Amos. “We were flat, sloppy and undisciplined. I said some things and Coach Hulbert said some things, and they figured it out pretty quick. I was really pleased with how they adjusted mid-round and pushed on from that.”
Graduate student Trevor Hulbert (Orlando, Florida) finished the tournament with a third-place win.
“It was a weird start, a different kind of format than I was used to,” Hulbert said. “Getting thrown right into that at the honors course, with a 36-hole day. It took a minute to get the right mentality and coach did a good job of getting us into that mentality after the first couple holes. We kind of got fired up once we got to some scorable holes, and after that it was all about confidence.”
Not playing for a while can throw players for a loop when getting back into the swing of things, which at times can be one of the toughest parts of the game.
“Getting back in a team competition, it’s been a long time, and everything was new,” Hulbert said. “Once you settle down and remind yourself – you’re still playing golf. You’ve done this hundreds of times before, it’s no different.”
The team has one more tournament this fall – the Maridoe Invitational at Carrollton, Texas.
“I’m expecting them to be really sharp and ready to go and learn from our mistakes,” said Amos. “I think we’re going to be really competitive and surprise some people there.”
