At Union University, the majority of athletic teams are just getting started with practice this week. However, there are a few teams that have the green light ahead of everyone else, including the men’s and women’s golf teams.
Although their season is taking place in a time of many precautions, practice has felt normal to the golfers and coaches.
“We kind of have started like doing practice differently anyways,” said Emma Korte, member of the women’s golf team and junior athletic training major. “So we’ve kind of broken off into different groups so they’re smaller, we’re not really around each other that much so it’s been pretty normal.”
The teams have not had any tournaments yet, but the golfers are still finding competition by playing against each other. Each team participates in a bracket challenge in which Ryan Chandler, head coach for both the men’s and women’s golf teams, assigns everyone a partner, and the two teams engage in various friendly competition.
“We’ve got a whole bracket like hung up outside of his office to like just kind of make it fun,” Korte said.
After so much uncertainty surrounding the start of the season, all of the golfers are excited to get the opportunity to get back to work.
“Everybody kind of came in just kind of disappointed, and then Coach gave us the green light, and we were like, ‘Let’s go,’” Korte said.
Chandler is also happy to be back with his teams. During the break, he struggled with not being able to do everything that he had always been able to do, such as working with his players and recruiting.
“I think that’s been the most difficult part is knowing that I’m here to do a job, and then with the COVID-19 restrictions not being able to do everything that we’re here to do,” Chandler said.
In the summer, and even in the fall before announcing that golf would be able to play, Chandler made sure to stress to his players to be ready when the opportunity came. Now, months later, the opportunity has finally come.
“Thankfully, we’ve been able to start practice and get ready for what would be a somewhat normal fall season,” Chandler said.
The first tournament for the women’s team will be Oct. 5-6 at the Lee University Invitational in Cleveland, Tennessee. The first tournament for the men’s team will be Oct. 12-13 at the Delta State University Invitational in Cleveland, Mississippi.
