Sophie Foulds hits a golf ball off a tee.<\/p>\n
ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 Eckerd College had a historical season on the links with the women\u2019s golf team making its first National Collegiate Athletic Association regional appearance and Reggie Fear from the men\u2019s team advancing to regionals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really exciting to be part of both teams,\u201d said David Woodrum, a third-year head coach for both squads. \u201cThey set goals of being nationally ranked and they did that very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noting the significance of how those achievements impact recruiting efforts at the Division II school in St. Petersburg, the coach said, \u201cIt\u2019s a huge booster, for sure. We\u2019re a really young team and we\u2019ve got a lot of good things to look forward to in years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for this season, the women\u2019s team was ranked in the top 25 for the first time ever, ascending as high as No. 19 in the polls and finishing at No. 22.<\/p>\n
Aubane Statiotis, who carried a 73.8 average, was one of five golfers in the country to be named to the Women\u2019s Golf Coaches Association All-Freshman team. She placed seventh at regionals in Cleveland, Tenn. Statiotis and teammate Melissa Ball both spent time inside the top 30 nationally.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s got all the talent in the world,\u201d Woodrum said of Statiotis, an All-SSC second-teamer who last summer was ranked 303rd in the world. \u201cAnd she\u2019s got some talented players behind her.\u201d<\/p>\n
That includes Sophie Foulds, Camille Padieu and Tallulah Brooks-Williams, who also competed at regionals.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As for Fear, he is an NCAA Division II PING First Team All-American, First Team All-Sunshine State Conference and PING All-Region selection. As the conference runner-up, he ended the season as the nation\u2019s No. 9-ranked golfer and qualified for his second straight NCAA regional appearance.<\/p>\n
The sophomore, who played at regionals in Valdosta, Georgia, posted a 69.9 regular-season average with one tournament victory and five top-three finishes. He was a two-time SSC Men\u2019s Golfer of the Week award.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very seasoned player,\u201d Woodrum said of Fear, who last season made the All-SSC second team. \u201cHe\u2019s a great leader; just a very talented player.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a former college golfer, Woodrum is well aware of what it takes to be successful on the links. He was part of two national championship teams (2016 and 2020) at Bluefield State, a Division II school in West Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no secret to success,\u201d he said. \u201cHard work beats talent every day. It\u2019s just consistency. All of our players are buying into where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sophie Foulds hits a golf ball off a tee. ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 Eckerd College had a historical season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-306083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}