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The Men’s and Women’s Golf team both had quite the historic 2018 seasons. Men’s Golf ended the year tied for second in the G-MAC only two strokes behind champion Malone University, while the women’s team ended not only as G-MAC champions, but also first place at the Super Regional golf match. However, this is a different season, and Head Coach Dominic Guarnieri learned many lessons from last season and is ready to put them to use.
The biggest lesson learned by Guarnieri, he says is to “take it year-by-year. [We] Don’t look at what we have done in the past or look at what we plan to do in the future, but just focus on the year at hand. Obviously, do a lot of the things that make us successful year in and year out, but each team, each year is different. We like to celebrate our accomplishments, but we
don’t really dwell on them.” Even with this mindset, the very impressive 2018 season has certainly been a
confidence booster going into this season.
“We definitely take some of those things that we have learned that has made us so successful and carry those over from year to year.”
Although the season was historic, there is always room to improve for both teams.
“For our men’s team, I think it really comes down to staying focused each tournament week in and week out,” Guarnieri said. “We had a lot of successes in the past, but we were actually talking about this in our meeting, how we thought we may have underachieved a little bit last year… As far as our women’s team goes, we’re really gonna work on staying focused. We have a little bit of a smaller squad size this year as far as our women’s team, so everybody has to be focused and on the same page.”
Both teams will enter the season with much strength, specifically the men’s depth and
the how close the women’s team is.
For the men’s team, according to Guarnieri, “We have multiple players that we feel could be in our top 5, so the competition that were gonna have amongst our team and fighting for those positions [will be huge]. So that is clearly our strength on the men’s team, as well as our cohesiveness.”
As for the women’s team, Guarnieri says the women’s strengths the closeness and the “experience we have coming back. Yes, we did lose two girls that had four years’ experience, but like I said, [we have] three returners.”
Contrary to what the some people may think, there is a lot of exercise involved in golf, primarily in walking. Guarnieri makes sure to handle this when training the athletes for the matches.
“We have a strength coach that we utilize. And they combine cardio workouts… we do a lot of events that we play 36 holes in one day, so that cardio and that stamina is really, really important.”
With six seniors leading the way for the men’s team, much experience and leadership is shown through them.
“We actually had a little, separate meeting with the senior guys and talked to them about leadership and the role that they’re gonna play,” Guarnieri commented “Some of them will be traveling and some of them won’t be, so it’s just about being supportive of each other. I feel really good about where were at this year for the men’s [team].”
“On the women’s side, same thing. We have a couple seniors that I feel are really gonna take over that leadership role. We have a smaller group, [and] all throughout, we feel that everybody on the team will have a special role on what they bring to the table.”
The Oiler’s Golf Teams open their seasons September 7th in the Ohio Cup at Red Hawk Run Golf Course in Findlay for the men’s team, and September 9th at The Indianapolis Invitational in Carmel, Indiana for the women’s team.
