St. Joe’s men’s golf team is hoping to finish a challenging season with a good showing at the Atlantic 10 (A-10) championship, which begins April 29 in Orlando, Florida.
The Hawks are coming off of a 14th place finish out of 15 teams at Villanova University’s Wildcat Spring Invitational, hosted April 18-19 at the Radnor Valley Country Club.
But as has been the case all season, senior co-captain J.T. Spina and graduate student co-captain Wills Montgomery posted individual successes at the Villanova tournament. Spina finished tied for 28th place, posting a score of nine over par for the tournament, and Montgomery recorded a score of 10 over par, finishing tied for 35th place.
Spina led St. Joe’s in both top 10 and top 25 finishes in the fall season and has carried his success over to the spring season, posting top 25 finishes in his last three starts, highlighted by a sixth place finish March 28-29 at the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Spina credits his career success to his work ethic, among other factors.
“My dad is a golf pro, so I got introduced to the game at a really young age. Ever since, I made golf my first priority, sports wise,” Spina said. “I feel like my work ethic has taken a dramatic step up when I came to college, and it is paying off.”
Sophomore Kevin Smith said unlike other Division I sports at St. Joe’s, golf is about individual successes, which leads to team success.
“All you can control out there is how you play individually. You have to focus on yourself while still rooting for each other in practice and tournament rounds,” Smith said. “We’re making sure that everybody’s got the right information for the course, so in that sense it’s definitely a team aspect. But when it comes game time, all you can do is focus on yourself.”
As the team looks ahead to its last tournament of the season in Florida, each player must focus on where they need to improve in order to be successful. For Smith, it is with the driver.
“I was having some driver issues and I’m starting to get that figured out,” Smith said. “Putting has probably been the strongest part of my game. That is where I make up a lot of my shots.”
Spina, on the other hand, said he needs to focus on putting.
“I recently changed both my putter and putting style because I have not been putting great,” Spina said. “I used to arm lock, which is popular, and now I’m going back to the regular stance. I think that’s one piece of my game that has been missing, and with that, I think I have a chance to compete at the A-10 [championship].”
With the arm lock technique, golfers lock the putter against their forearms.
Even with this focus on individual improvements, junior Coley Hunter said the team of seven feels more like a team than ever before.
“All seven guys are showing up and being held accountable,” Hunter said.
