Can't Win It on the First Day
Finally, after 8 months of grinding, practicing, working out, and waiting, the national tournament is here! For the four of us who are seniors, this is our final collegiate experience, as our graduation was this past Sunday. We are simply trying to live in the moment and enjoy every minute of this week. We have had a great time the last two days playing both of the courses and getting ready for the tournament. It's nice to be able to swing a golf club without two or three layers of clothes on to stay warm! Two nights ago we went to a clinic with PGA Tour Professional Olin Browne and the Golf Channel's Tim Rosaforte. It was great to hear from, and be encouraged by, a tour pro before the tournament began. Last night we had the NCAA banquet, which is always a fun evening. This is the first year the men and the women are at the same site, so the PGA Village has been packed all week long. I think all the family, friends, and spectators are in for a real treat! We got off to a good start today, shooting even par (288) as a team. Methodist shot a great round of 279, and we are currently in second place, nine shots back. Joey Polingo, who shot 69 in the final round of last year's national tournament, picked up right where he left off and fired a four under par 68. We can't complain, although we all agree we each left a few out there today. However, you definitely can't win this golf tournament on the first day, but you sure can lose it, so we are happy to be right in the mix of things. We are looking forward to tomorrow and doing what we do best...playing our game, one shot at a time. For those of you following along on-line on Golfstat, keep your refresh button close by...the next three days are going to be fun! As always... ...Keep your head down, Joe Daly
Finishing Strong
Hey everyone, this will probably be our last blog before
nationals next week, so here's a summary of our last week of regular season
play.
We hosted our annual "Legends Match" a little over a week
ago at Windsong Farms. Each year,
this event serves as a fundraiser and a great excuse to gather all former
Johnnie golfers together for a little fun. Each of the guys on the current team is paired up against
one "legend" (alumni) and we play an 18-hole match. Even though our program has seen some impressive players
throughout the years, our current team smoked the legends, winning the overall
match 9-3. I'm trying to enjoy my
bragging rights for another week or two until I officially turn into a "legend"
after nationals. All in all, it's
a really fun event that everyone looks forward to every spring.
This past Saturday/Sunday we played in our last regular
season tournament at the St. Olaf Invitational. The weather started to warm up and we finally saw 60
degrees, but the wind stayed true to its spring form. We were in second place, trailing by nine shots after the
first day, but we came back on Sunday and ended up winning by one shot. It was great to be in the heat of
competition fighting until the last hole, and we definitely feel as though this
was the perfect final tune up for nationals.
This week will be filled with a lot of papers and studying
for all our finals. We couldn't be
more excited for nationals next week, and we couldn't be hungrier for our third
title in a row. We are starting to
play like we can play, and we are starting to play with the confidence we'll
need in Florida.
Good luck to everyone with any remaining tournaments this
spring. We'll see you all in a
week in Port St. Lucie; it's going to be a blast. Peace out!
Keep your head down,
Joe Daly
A Curse?
Well as we continued our Spring Schedule today, we had to fight mother-nature once again. Our spring invite has bad weather every year and it continued this year. Our 36 hole event was shortened to 18 holes due to excessive rain, 40 degrees, and high winds.
This Johnnie team continues to impress me with its depth and determination. There were 17 teams at our tournament today and we finished 1,2. I have to give some credit to where credit is due. Coach Alpers has done a phenomenal job with recruiting and preparing all the guys on this team. The guys that are not on our first team are definitely fighting hard to get on there and earn a trip to Nationals with team. I am so proud of all these guys.
We are most certainly not playing our best golf yet but there are improvements being made. The rust is almost all off the swings now but the mental games still need to improve a little. I speak for the rest of the team and myself in saying that we are all still making some stupid mistakes out there that our costing us strokes. Those mistakes will need to be takin care of in 2 weeks when we go for our 3rd straight National Championship.
I know for us Seniors, the fact that we will be graduating soon is definitely setting in, in the full sense of the word. It makes me feel good that the underclassmen are playing well. The will do great taking over next year! I have complete confidence that they will keep that tradition, of great Johnnie golf, going.
We square off tomorrow against our Alumni. They like to call themselves "legends" but we all know they are just trying to live in the past. They don't stand a chance tomorrow. It's a great match-play event, with a dinner and some comraderie to follow. It will be a blast!
We finish up the regular season next weekend at the St. Olaf tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Then we graduate and head to Nationals the next weekend.
Take care all and keep them flying straight!
Joe Schoolmeesters......aka...Schooly
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Posted by Joe Schoolmeesters at 9:32 PM | Comment
Pressing On
Hey everyone,
Before I start, I have to make a comment about the weather (it's just something you do in Minnesota in the spring). It's supposed to get up to 80 today! We are pretty excited, but it's also going to go back to 45-50 and raining the next few days, so it all evens out in the end.
Since our dual with St. Cloud State, we had a dual with the University of St. Thomas. This has turned into an annual affair known as the "Johnnie/Tommie Cup." St. Thomas is our biggest rival within our conference for any and all sports (both of my parents went to St. Thomas, but don't worry, my sister and I got the family going on the right track by attending CSB/SJU). We have won the Cup for the first 9 years of its existence, but St. Thomas had just won the Buena Vista Invitational by shooting 587, so we were expecting a good match. Just like our last dual against St. Cloud, this one was a modified match play competition. We shot 290 as a team and our blue team shot 306, while St. Thomas shot 313 and 318. We also won the match portion of the dual 10.5 to 3.5. Four of our thirteen guys who played shot even par, so all in all it was a pretty good day.
We also played in the Bobby Krig Invitational this past Monday and Tuesday. We played 36 holes on Monday in 30mph winds and temperature that never got above 50...not exactly dream golf weather. It was more a battle to hang on and make as many pars as possible, rather than trying to make birdies and shoot a low score. Tuesday was a little warmer, but even windier than Monday. We had a one shot lead going into Tuesday, but unfortunately, we let it slip away and finished second to Luther by 5 shots. Instead of focusing on our poor performance, we are looking ahead to what we need to do to get better. Our focus and mental games are dull right now, and this weekend was a great wake-up call. We can't look ahead to Nationals yet, and I think we were starting to do that. We need to focus on each day, each round, and each shot; we need to get better all the time. We've got 3 more weeks to sharpen up before the big dance, so we like the way things are shaking out.
I'm going to go enjoy this great weather! We return to competition this Sunday for our own Spring Invite. Peace out, and as always...
Keep your head down.
Joe Daly
Off to a decent start!
Well our spring season got underway yesterday in a dual with St. Cloud State University. A little cross-town rivalry if you will. Each team had ten guys play. Our varsity five won 302-304 and our JV won 307-321. It was also a modified match play event where each individual competed against another and whomever shot the better score, got their team a point. We won that contest 7-3. So we ended up winning every contest which was good but we all felt like there were a lot of shots left out on the course.
The weather looks to be really promising for the rest of the week with temperatures in the 60's almost every day. Our spring season will really pick up starting this weekend with a dual against St. Thomas on Saturday. The good ol' Johnnie-Tommie rivalry will be in full effect with the Tommies coming off a nice win at the Wartburg Invitational. We then leave Sunday for the Gustavus Invitational on Monday and Tuesday.
Speaking for the seniors on the team, I can say that the realization that college is coming to an end is really starting to set in. With golf, we only have 10 days of class left and then we will be cut loose into the real world. Its definitely a sad feeling to know that the days of playing for the Johnnies are soon to be gone.
So competition is hot and guys are pushing eachother. The next couple of weeks are going to be real exciting and we have good feelings about the way things are headed. Confidence is key and that is something I have in all the guys on this team that they are doing everything they can to get St. Johns another National Championship!
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Playing Golf Outside?!?!
I apologize I didn't blog last week, but trust me when I say you didn't miss much... We have still been hitting off of and into our trusty mats and nets. They take good care of us. We thought that maybe, just maybe we'd get out early this year and start hitting and playing outside by the 1st of April, but mother nature made sure that didn't happen. On the night of Monday, March 30th, we were the victims of roughly 12 inches of snow! Since our two campuses are 5 miles apart, a bus called "The Link" drives back and forth to transport us to and from classes. The snow was so bad that The Link had to shut down and classes were cancelled for most of Tuesday. While we didn't mind not having class, we'd much rather not had more snow! Oh well, I guess that's what we get when we decide to go to play golf in college in Minnesota (you think we'd learn better after 18 years of growing up here...)
However, since last Monday and Tuesday, it's been warming up slowly each and every day. All last week we were still hitting indoors, but last Saturday some of our young guns drove down to "the cities" (Minneapolis/St. Paul and surrounding suburbs) and played outside. Most of the juniors and seniors attended what we call "Mom Prom." Mom Prom is a day/night where guys bring their Moms to school for a dinner and a dance; it's a really fun event.
This Monday we were able to hit off of our trusty mats onto our football field. Usually we have to do this for a week or two before driving ranges start opening, but yesterday we were able to find a driving range and practice outside! Hitting off of brown, thin, and fairly hard grass has never felt so good. I think the putting green was rolling about a 2 or 3 on the Stimpmeter (seriously...that's not an exaggeration). Even so, it was awesome to hear the sound of a golf ball hit the bottom of the cup. Today we'll be practicing at the same place, and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we'll get to play our first rounds of the year together as a team. We've got our first match scheduled for this coming Monday, the 13th, against Saint Cloud State University; hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll be able to play.
Joe and I will probably blog a little more frequently now that we are actually practicing and playing outside, especially with matches and meets in the near future. While we are definitely happy to be done hitting indoors (knock on wood), we couldn't be more ready and hungry as a result. Until next time, go Tiger, Happy Easter and God bless.
Keep your head down.
Joe Daly
Minnesota's Inconsistent Weather
Well here we are in the last week of March and we are seeing snowflakes on a daily basis. We recieved around 3 inches of rain earlier this week which took care of the rest of the snow. We started hitting outdoors but have been forced back inside due to cold temperatures. So we are hitting off mats inside, which isn't the greatest thing in the world, but we do alright.
My teamate, Joe Daly, already informed you all of the background of our school and our golf program. There is not much new here in regards to the advancement of our golf season. We are trying to be as patient as possible with the weather but our first tournament is only a little over two weeks away. We play a duel match against St. Cloud State on the 13th of April and then head to the Gustavus tournament the 20th and 21st.
As Daly said earlier, we are very excited for the upcoming spring and the chance to compete for a third straight National Championship. There are a lot of good teams as always, but our hopes and expectations are still high.
The team is looking very good and I am excited to see the underclassmen working so hard. They know there are still spots that are open for taking and if they do not grab one this spring, there will be 3 more opening next year with the departure of 3 seniors. When you live in Minnesota, there are limits to what you can do to prepare for the spring and this team is doing very well. We are getting in the weightroom on a daily basis and guys are working hard on their conditioning.
We also took our team picture the other day, which was in the snow like usual because the snow was everywhere. Guess thats just the "nature of the beast,"as our coach would say.
So for now, we will just watch the weather and hope for a turn-around. For all of you in the south, be thankful!
Joe Schoolmeesters
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Posted by Joe Schoolmeesters at 5:56 PM | Comment
Hello from Minnesota!
Hello,
My name is Joe Daly, and I'm a senior at Saint John's University. No, not Saint John's in New York! Our Saint John's is located in central Minnesota, roughly an hour and fifteen minutes North/Northwest from Minneapolis. Along with my teammate Joe Schoolmeesters, I am excited to share this blog with you all!
We are from a small, private, Catholic institution with about 4,000 students if you include our sister school, the College of Saint Benedict, five miles down the road. We are an all male University, while Saint Ben's is an all female College. However, the only things that are truly all guys/girls are the Residential Life programs and the Athletic Departments. We take classes together on both campuses, eat together, study together, hang out together...pretty much everything is Co-ed except Res. Life and athletics. But enough about our school, check it out online if you want more information (www.csbsju.edu). Let's talk some golf!
The last three and a half years have gone so fast they are a blur, but there are a few things that do stand out. Winning the National Tournament the last two years has been more than I ever dreamed of. Sure winning the big one was the goal when I first came to SJU, but who knew that a small school from Minnesota, yes Minnesota, could win a couple golf championships? We have been through a lot in my tenure here, both good and bad, but overall it has been one great ride. However, we have not, and we will not live in the past; a new season is here and we are hungrier than ever.
The beginning of the spring golf season in Minnesota truly tests our patience. As you might have guessed, it's still a little early for us to be playing golf in Minnesota. As we see the thermometer break 50 degrees a few times we think, "I could be playing golf right now." But then reality sinks in when you stop daydreaming and see a foot of snow on the ground. As of today, there isn't too much snow left, but history has taught me not to get too excited yet. Last year we had a snow storm the second week of April that put 12 inches on the ground...it's only March 19th! Who knows, maybe the golf gods will cut us some slack this year and the courses will open early...I'm definitely not getting my hopes up though.
We have been having indoor practice for a few weeks now. We hit into baseball nets off of mats in our indoor track facility. It's nothing glamorous, but try living in Minnesota for a winter and you will understand how awesome hitting into a net that's 10 feet away can be. Roughly half of our team (16 guys) traveled south over our spring break (Feb 27 - March 8) to play some golf. Six of us drove to Port St. Lucie, Florida, to see the courses for the National Tournament this year, and one of our other guys traveled to Arizona to stay and play with some alums. It was great to get out and play on grass, but having a spring break that early only means we come home and get to hit indoors that much longer.
Other than anxiously waiting to start practicing outside, we are all consumed by March Madness, and now that Tiger is back, we are actually watching golf on t.v. again.
That's all I've got for now. I've got to go fulfill the "student" part of my "student athlete" title. I hope everyone out there is getting ready for the spring season that lies ahead; it's going to be a great one.
Keep your head down.
Joe Daly
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Daly
Senior, Saint John's (Minn.)
Joe Schoolmeesters
Senior, Saint John's (Minn.)
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