College life is not all fun and parties

By Marissa Cianchetti

During golf season it is really hard to get everything done and still have time to see my friends. During golf season my time is spent at practice, doing homework, sorority meetings and Big Brothers-Big Sisters. The remainder of my time I sleep or try to remember to call my parents.

I am so busy I have no social life. Just the other day someone asked, “I was wondering if you still even went to this school.” Hey thanks, yes, I am still enrolled at Centre, but rather than going to a fraternity party on a Friday night, I am on the course in a practice round for the upcoming tournament.

Since starting my sophomore year I have only been seen at a party once, and the rest of the time I have been studying. At Centre, I have to study a lot to get good grades and sometimes it gets so frustrating trying to do everything. I normally can get all my work done, but sometimes it is not up to Centre’s standards. So I have to think about my opportunity costs of going out versus studying. Studying wins most of the times. I miss going out, but my grades are important.

Hopefully after golf season is over, people still remember who I am. Being a student-athlete isn’t easy, especially at Centre College. I wish I could transfer so it would be easier and I could still see my friends, but in the long run it will pay off.

I wrote this just to give everyone a idea how athletes’ social lives suffer during their seasons and so everyone at Centre realizes, YES, I am still a student at Centre College.

Another weekend, another win for the golf team

By Marissa Cianchetti

Another weekend, another golf tournament,and another win for both Centre College golf teams. It seems as if the men’s and women’s teams are off to a pretty good start. When the rankings come ou, the women’s team is hoping to be in the top50 in the nation. The men hopefully will break the top 30. In the past three years, both teams have come so far and all of us are excited to see where we can go.

This past weekend the women’s team was at Hanover College in Madison, Ind. (For complete results of the tournament, click here.) The first day of the tournament was a struggle. No one played as well as they expected, and most of us were very frustrated. However, Scott Bolin, our assistant coach, kept us positive and after a pep talk we were ready for the next day.

On the second day the women’s team did not use a score over 89. Katie McKenna carded a 79, both Melanie Goff and Paige Burton had 85’s and Sarah Fisher and I had 89s. Our individual, Lindsay Maurer, shot 92. Our total for the second day was a 338, which is very good for Division III golf. We beat the second place team by 22 strokes and the third place team by about 40.

I cannot explain how excited I am about how far we have come since last year, and none of us could say we played our best with those scores we carded on the second day. Next weekend we are playing in the DePauw Small School Classic. DePauw is ranked second in Division III golf. We are hoping to give them a run for their money.

The Centre men’s team had a successful weekend as well. They won the Anderson University Fall Invitational at Anderson, Ind. The men came out strong with a 293 to lead the tournament and were closely followed by their second team, who shot 297. The men then held on in the final round to outlast conference foe Depauw University. The first team fired a final round of 301 and the second team fired a final round 303 to finish first and second respectively.

The men were led by Tyler Griffith with a one-over score of 145 (68-77) and Chris Morris also with a one-over 145 (72-73). Griffith went on to birdie the first playoff hole to win individual honors. The men will return to action next weekend in Springfield, Ohio at the Wittenberg Invitational, as they look to start the season with a fourth win in a row.

What a Joke: When Pro Golfers Complain

While in class Monday, I read a newspaper article in the Wall Street Journal about pro golfers. It was titled, “When Millionaires Moan: The new PGA playoffs are turning a genteel sport a little warlike,” by John Paul Newport.

After reading it I had to express my thoughts on this article. John Paul Newport touched on the three problems that the major golf stars such as Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, have with the FedEx Cup and PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

The first problem was that the money wasn’t being paid out like the tour players wanted it. The second problem was the seeding, it’s not bracket form like football but instead based on previous performances. The third complaint was the biggest problem of all — too many golf tournaments in too short of a time period.

Tiger Woods, among other players, does not agree with the current system of how money is paid out. Right now there is a pool of $35 million, 10 of which goes to the winner, not in cash but instead in a 401k account. This retirement account cannot be accessed by the winner until age 45. This account is compounded and grows until maturity. Did I mention this account is tax deferred? However, Phil and Tiger would rather have the $10 million right away, although after taxes it would only be equivalent to six million dollars.

If they kept with the current system, and say they would be making six percent interest for 15 years on the account, they would walk away with $23,965,581.93 in untaxed dollars in their pocket. Not a bad deal at all, eh? Maybe Tiger and Phil should discover the wonderful phenomenon of compounding interest that doubles their money.

The biggest problem of all is too many golf tournaments in too little time. The PGA playoffs, and other very important tournaments start in early August and goes until late September. Apparently that is too much for pro golfers. Newport writes “the top players are expected to compete in seven important tournaments in nine weeks. Fans can joke that they’d like to have such problems, but playing at peak intensity for that many weeks is genuinely fatiguing.”

I’m not even sure how to respond that, other than what a joke. First off, playing seven tournaments in nine weeks isn’t that much golf, let alone too much golf at all. Most professional athletes while in season are playing almost every day, and when they are not playing they are traveling across the country. They are exerting just as much effort as golfers are. Golfers might even have more of a break than other athletes.

College golfers have just as demanding a schedule as the pros. The tour schedule could be a lot more demanding. If the players believe it’s too much, they can just opt not to play in some of the events.

After much thought, I have come up with a few solutions to these problems. First, the pros who are complaining should take some basic business classes to learn about compounding interest and our progressive tax system.

Next they should go back to college and play college golf. They will play more than seven tournaments in nine weeks, and carry their own bags, rather than their caddies do it for them. And after all that, if they still want to complain, I know some guys who would love to play their schedule and would accept just $100,000 dollars in a 401K account. Actually, they might even play on the tour for free.

I’m not saying playing on the PGA Tour is easy, but it’s their job, and their job is one of the best ones that has ever existed. These pros have it made, and I’m pretty sure Tim Finchem should institute a rule saying there should be no whining on the course.

Oh wait, that would give the tour players more to complain about.

Friday Night Lights - at the soccer field!

For most people Friday night lights means a good classic American football game. At Centre, a game under the lights on Friday means soccer.

Watching the women’s and the men’s soccer teams home games is the most popular thing to do on a Friday night. By 7:30 there is a crowd standing on the edge of the field cheering on our soccer team. We all line up along the fence preparing to root for our boys and boo the other team.

Sometimes we get too rowdy, but seeing the other team distracted by our ruckus is well worth it.

Our crowd of fans is so faithful to the team; we are out there rain or shine. We are even out there when it is so cold; two pairs of gloves don’t keep your hands warm. Some games we even make signs for the team, but there is always a Centre College and a Sigma Chi flag at every game.

The Sigma Chi flag is flown because the majority of the players are Sigs and their fraternity brothers all come to support them at every game.

There is even a Facebook group called “Poke” The opposing teams goalie, where we get the name of the goalie and “poke” him. In other words we all get on our Facebooks, find his profile and hit the poke button so when he gets on his profile he has 100 “you have been poked” by random people.

These traditions are some of the unique aspects of Centre College and give us students a fun end to our week at school. All of us will be supporting our team and hoping that they end up as one of the top teams in the nation this year!

Golf season begins

Monday was the start to Centre College’s golf season.

What most people don’t know is that golf season had already started, in fact golf season never really ended. Golf to many college students is a year long sport — the only difference is where we practice. During the official season it is at Old Bridge or the Danville Country Club.

In the winter, we are in the basement of the Buck Fitness Centre (at Centre College) in our indoor golf facility. In the summer we are practicing at our home courses, and playing individually in summer tournaments. Sometimes we even compete against each other.

During the season we practice seven days a week. There is not many days where we are not found on the course or on the range. When we get to practice we warm up and putt for a while, then we walk nine holes. Some days we don’t walk off the course till eight at night.

On the weekends we play 18 holes for practice and qualifying. On a typical Saturday we are out at the course for about six hours, just to go back to Centre to have six more hours of homework.

The best part of college golf is traveling to different places all over the country to play golf. When we travel we normally get to the course, get out of the vans, and hit the range and the putting green. After we warm up we normally get to look at a couple of holes on the course to begin to prep for tomorrow’s practice round. The next morning is the official practice round. We play 18 holes and study the course. After that we normally eat, do homework and go to sleep. The next morning we arrive at the course about an hour and a half prior to the first tee time. We warm up, putt and one by one we tee off. A normal tournament round last any where from five to six and a half hours. Then we have to wait for everyone to come in then read the scoreboard. A tournament day usually lasts about eight to nine hours.

After we leave the course we change, eat dinner, do homework and go to bed to do this all over again the next day. The second day of the tournament is normally the final day, and once we play, and hopefully receive our trophy, we leave and drive back home. After these four-day trips we are normally exhausted, but missed classes and homework keeps us going.

Twice a year we make two longer trips. Over break in January we go to Florida. We get to play many rounds at Heathrow in Orlando. Coach (Brian) Chafin also gets us on a course called Isleworth, which is Tiger’s course. Playing this course is a once in a lifetime opportunity that most people don’t get, let alone a Division III college team. Coach’s friends Mike Lewis and Jim English allow us to go play these wonderful courses, along with going to see an Orlando Magic game. One of the five days we are in Florida we play a tourney against an international school. It is an amazing experience to play with kids from all over the world. The Florida trip makes for long days out on the course, but gives us so many great experiences.

Aother trip which really prepares us for the spring season is our spring break trip. For nine straight days we play, five of which are tournament rounds. We start the trip at a tourney in Georgia. This is like a normal four-day tourney. From there we drive into the wee hours to Jekyll Island, Georgia. The next morning we get up and play a practice round. The following day, we start what I call two-a-days. We get up and hit the course before the sun has completely risen and before the dew has dissipated. We do this for three days. Finally, comes the three-day spring classic tourney. We play in that and we leave Jekyll, drive through the night and are at our classes the next morning. This trip is long and excruciating. However, when we are done we are prepared for our spring season.

All this work and pain has brought Centre women’s golf into the top 50 ranked teams in the nation. This year with an addition of a new frosh, Paige, I am looking forward to what we can do. I think we are ready to put all this work into action and show the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) what we are all about.