George Washington University Athletics
GW Golf Season Outlook
9/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
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Sept. 11, 2015
The George Washington golf team will look to build upon last year's results, including a strong fall season, when it opens its Fall 2015 campaign this weekend at the Rutgers Invitational.
The 2014-15 Colonials made strides in the fall by finishing fifth out of 17 teams at the Patriot Intercollegiate and posting a 300.2 team scoring average, their lowest since 2008. In the spring, GW posted two of its four lowest rounds of the season at the conference tournament.
Third-year head coach Chuck Scheinost has built a schedule that he believes will challenge his team while also giving the squad a chance to be successful.
"I think we've got a good mixture of tournaments in the fall," Coach Scheinost said. "We've got a couple of events that if we play some solid golf we've got a chance to contend and some events that are really going to push us to up our level of play. We're going to see a lot of different teams from all over the country this fall, which will be great for us. We're going to experience some different conditions in terms of style of courses, which I think will really help us prepare as we look toward the spring and the A-10 Championship."
The Colonials' veteran nine-player roster for 2015-16 features seven returners, including six upperclassmen.
"We've got a lot of experience on this team coming back," said Coach Scheinost. "We've got three seniors and I think they're still hungry to play and prove they can take their games to another level this year. They've improved the last couple years and I'm excited to see where they can go by the end of this year. We've also got a solid junior class which has had a lot of experience their first two years."
With the graduation of two-time Atlantic 10 All-Conference performer and 2015 team MVP Jack Persons, sophomore Vince Palazzolo is the Colonials' top returner. The New Jersey native posted a 75.56 scoring average across 27 rounds last season, ranking second on the team to Persons, and was the Colonials' top finisher three times.
Senior Michael Helton is back after recording a career-low 77.17 scoring average over 23 rounds a year ago, including a career-best 11th place finish at the Davidson Invitational, last spring's opening tournament. Juniors Lucas Farmer and Michael Heda have played in nearly every event in their first two years in Foggy Bottom. Team MVP as a freshman after leading the Colonials with a 75.48 scoring average, Heda is poised for a bounce-back campaign in 2015-16, while Farmer is coming off a solid summer of golf.
"Heda is swinging with some confidence right now and I like that; he's a fighter," said Coach Scheinost. "I'm excited to see him bounce back this year."
Coach Scheinost will also have seniors Steve Piela and Pierre Tillement and sophomore Jack Porcelli as veterans available to his five-man tournament rotation, and Porcelli cracked the scoring lineup for the season-opening Rutgers Invitational.
"Jack Porcelli had a good summer, he put a lot of dedication into it," said Coach Scheinost. "I'm very pleased with the amount of effort he put in."
Junior Christian Cichan, a transfer from Purdue, and freshman Logan Lowe are expected to make an immediate impact in their inaugural season with the Colonials. Coach Scheinost said Cichan, a Charlotte, North Carolina, native, has been working on his mechanics to return to his high school form, when he fell just two strokes shy of qualifying for the PGA's Wells Fargo Championship. Lowe, who hails from Northern California, qualified for and made the cut at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship this summer.
"Our theme this year is going from good to great because we showed flashes of brilliance last year while being pretty good, but we didn't hit our stride in the spring," said Coach Scheinost. "If we want to be the team we talk about, we've got to change our expectation level, and if we can do that we can start pushing ourselves to another level and really take a step toward being a great team. The guys have put in a lot of hard work and I'm really excited. I think it's going to be a fun year."
Players Mentioned
