By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

Salem, Ore. –With clouds creeping in from the west to the east, the Corban Golf team are out at Creekside Golf Course prepping for their second half of their season.

Sitting in second in both the Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s and Women’s Golf Divisions, Head Coach Tom Graves is impressed with how his young squad has gelled together entering the second half of their season.

“We did a lot of traveling, so they were getting used to  the whole traveling for four days.  Being gone from school and managing their time with the homework they have and the busy demands that  college has.

“We’re a young team, we have 12 freshmen out of 16 golfers total,” Graves continued. “So they are really gelling together, they’re bonding.  They learned a lot and I think they’re all ready to get after it this spring and give it their best effort.”

One of those Freshmen, Aaron Seabrook, said while his squad were working on putting, drives and working from the bunker with chipping; that the first half of the season opened his eyes to the world of collegiate golfing as he looks ahead.

“It’s really beneficial I think,” he said. “It kind of showed me  what to expect for the second part of the season and that’s the most important because we have CCC-Championships coming up and that’s decides who goes to Nationals.

“It really helped me build I guess pressure situations and know what to expect from them when that happens.”

With the sun peaking out through the clouds and working on chipping from the bunker, junior Carrie Wallace admits that her team knew what they need to fix as the February 28’s George Fox Spring Kickoff approaches from the horizon.

“The first half of the season, it was a little disappointing because we didn’t play as well as we wanted to,” described Wallace on the first half of the season.  “We would have one great day then the second day we weren’t very good.  But we know what our mistakes were and we’re going to move forward from that.”

Over the down period of the season, the team gelled.  Mental workshops every Thursday night and working out together twice a week, to go along with team bonding.

All to prepare for the final push for the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament and the National Tourney in April and May respectively.

Wallace described how the team changed from healing to becoming better friends as their team personality improved.

“We’ve became stronger over break,” she said.  “Just as a team personality wise and everything we’ve done some healing, become better friends over the break and I think going forward it’s going to definitely benefit us becoming a team later on in the season.”

Seabrook said that, as the team moves into the month of February, him and his fellow freshman look to continue to adjust and learn how to adapt to pressure situations while in a tournament with the help of drills during practice.

“Being freshman, we kind of have a disadvantage,” Seabrook started.  “But we’re all great golfers and I think we can overcome the pressure that we had.  Multiple drills and tournaments to help us learn because that’s all pressure is just being confident and knowing your abilities and knowing that you’re going to make that putt and you’re going to make that shot.

“That’s all what golf is.”

These pressure situations didn’t really affect the Warriors as they are sitting behind Oregon Tech in the Men’s Division of the CCC and the College of Idaho in the Women’s at the moment.

For Graves, he’s preaching hard work and decidcation to his young squad.  He knows his team has the talent, they just got to put in the work as the season gets going once again.

“Both teams are second in conference right now out of the seven conference schools that we have in golf,” said Graves. “They’re both number two-ranked, so I think our goal for both teams is to give them a run for their money and win (the) conference Championships and advance to the National Championships.

“So that’s how we’re going to be working towards all spring.”

REMINDING SCHEDULE

DATE                     EVENT                                                                   LOCATION

2/28-                     George Fox Spring Kick-Off.                        Willamette Valley CC (Canby,                                                                                                        Oregon)

3/12-3/13            Lewis And Clark Invite                                    Heron Lakes Golf Course                                                                                                              (Portland, Oregon)

4/4-4/5                 Corban Spring Invite                                     Creekside Golf Course                                                                                                                  (Salem, Oregon)

4/18-4/19            Cascade Collegiate Conf. Tournament          Eagle Point Golf Course (Eagle                                                                                                     Point, Oregon)

5/17-5/20            NAIA National Championships                      Savannah Quarters CC                                                                                                                 (Savannah, Georgia)

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!