Posted on September 8, 2008
You won’t see their names on a PGA leaderboard, but this year’s men’s golf team is poised to do big things behind its two talented seniors: Fielding Brewbaker and Tim Driver.
“The two seniors are our biggest strength this year,” said JMU coach Jeff Forbes, who also coaches two juniors, one sophomore and five freshmen. “I think it is good for the guys to have the years spread out like this. The leaders on the team [are our seniors]. They have shown what they can do. I am looking for a good season.”
This year’s schedule is tougher than the last few years, as coach Forbes found a couple more difficult tournaments so the team would be more competitive this year.
The team has its opening tournament Sept. 19-21 at the Sea Trail Invitational in Sunset Beach, N.C, then three tournaments in October and one final tournament in November. All tournaments are away because JMU does not have its own home golf course. They practice at the Lakeview Golf Course.
“I think that our biggest weakness is that we are still in transition from being a non-scholarship team to one that is a scholarship team,” Forbes said. “Most every player on the team this season is a scholarship player.”
“This season, our goal is for an individual player to win one of the tournaments by himself,” Forbes said. “Also, another goal is for the entire team to win a tournament, which did not happen last year.”
As for the leaders of the squad this fall, Brewbaker and Driver are the co-captains. Last season, Brewbaker led the team with six top-20 finishes in tournaments, tied for a team-season-low round of 67 and won the team MVP award.
Driver was second on the team with four top-20 finishes at tournaments, tied Brewbaker for a team-season-low round of 67 and was tied for seventh at the Scotty Duncan Memorial.
“There is definitely a different attitude on the team this year,” Driver said. “We are going to be more competitive. We are younger, but we have even more talent. We could compete in every tournament this year. I think we have a better shot to compete this year.
“Coach Forbes did a great job getting us in some better tournaments,” Brewbaker said. “I’m looking forward to competing in higher-class tournaments. He brought in four new freshmen. One of the kids walked on [Bonafant] and he is really good. The team improved and I’m looking forward to playing in better events.”
Jack Bonafant is a freshman this year and showed up as a walk-on and finished fourth overall out of 10 in the first tournament. He is definitely a player to look for in the upcoming season. Also, freshman Chris Wellde did very well in the opening tournament. These two players could be the building blocks of the future for JMU men’s golf.
“We have a good group of guys,” Forbes said. “I am excited to see how the freshmen develop and to see who, among the freshmen, shows leadership qualities for the future.”
JMU’s biggest problem was that they had only two or three scores for each tournament and never placed very high because of it. If the top three players didn’t all do a great job, then their final score would be low.
