March 8, 2006

Freshman Domingo Jojola writes about the trip to North Carolina for the Campbell University Classic. He ended up wining Medalist Honors.

To get to the Hargrove B. Davis Spring Classic, Campbell University's intercollegiate invitational, meant that we had to be in the air almost eight hours.

Coach Nelson tells us there's a NCAA Rule that says that you cant leave more than 48 hours before tournament starts so I had to get up at 4:45 am to meet Coach and the rest of the team at 5:15 for the ride to the airport.

We finally arrived in Raleigh/Durham airport and only got a little lost driving to our hotel, which was about an hour's drive away. North Carolina has more paved roads than any other state, and we must have traveled most of them.

The first day was a practice round and the weather was sunny and mild. It was to be the best that we would see for the rest of the stay. Ellis Maples designed the course. Coach had told us about his designs on the drive from the airport and it proved to be a very, very nice course, once you got used to the fact that it was completely brown. The only things that were green were the tees and the greens. The rest was dormant Bermuda and it looked like moonscape.

The first day of the tournament it was 41 degrees and raining. Add that to the fact that we were getting up at 4:00 am West Coast time and we were pretty happy with the way we played. I was even par for the first round and my roommate Kurt (Nino) had a 75.

We ended up in fourth place six strokes behind the leading team from High Point, N. C.. We played two rounds (36 holes) the first day and the second round was better. I shot two under par, as did our third freshman, Jesse Galvon, while my roommate shot a fine 73.

It jumped us up to second place, just two strokes behind Liberty College.

What was really important, at least to Coach and myself,was that I was also in the lead for the individual title by one stroke.

We had a dinner in a barn near the course right after the second round ended, and we found out about North Carolina hospitality. We went saying, "Lets just eat and get back to the hotel. It turned out that the barn was filled with pinball machines, foosball, packman, pool tables, and lots of other fun stuff.

The food was also reat - fried chicken, beef, rice, dumplings, and some stuff that we didn't know, like fat- back, which is deep fried-salted pig fat.

People kept saying how much they appreciated coming all the way from San Francisco, but they started to ask why we didn't stay there when it became known that we were in second place. We ended up staying an hour after dinner in the barn, but still got back to the hotel by 8:30.

The last day was clear and sunny, but again it was only 42 degrees and the wind was blowing about twenty-five miles per hour. It was really a tough day for golf, and our team was still feeling the effects of both the flu and the time change. We didn't play as well as we can. In fact it was our highest score of the year.

I tried real hard to keep focused on my own game. I putted real well and just kept putting my ball in the fairway.

The result was a 74, two over par. I was disappointed, but Coach was really upbeat. The scores for everyone were really high, and he thought I had a chance to win the individual title.

It was a real nervous hour while we waited for the results to come in and be tabulated.

Coach Nelson wouldn't leave for the airport until the results were in. With every score that came in my hopes got higher. The fellow that was one stroke behind me after two rounds shot a 75. That was the clincher; I won by two strokes.

It was my first individual title and was a goal that Coach Nelson and I had set at the beginning of the season.

My teammates went wild; my hand was getting sore from so many high-fives. Coach kept taking pictures. It was great. I felt that I had won it for myself, but seeing how happy the team was I knew that they also shared the excitement.

The last two tournaments we have been in or near the lead after two rounds. Both times we have come up a little short. There were circumstances that made it rough for us in those rounds, the flu, the weather, and the time change, but we have not used them as an excuse. Instead we use it as knowledge as to how good we are getting. A win will come. All good things come to those who wait.

Now, eight more hours flying home, and it was worth it.

Domingo Jojola