Last fall, the Chaminade golf team was short one member from making a full team. Since a new coach was hired last fall, there wasn’t time to recruit enough players to fill out the team.
Only recently has coach Maurice Maggiolino, the sports information director, been able to get the full five members for the team. However, they still have not been able to practice together.
Yet the Chaminade golf team will be playing together for the first time this season when it hosts an tri-match with Hawaii Pacific University and BYU-Hawaii on its home course, the Royal Hawaii Golf Club in Kailua, on March 19.
Last fall was the start of the non-championship segment, and the golf team only had four players. Since one player left the team and another is currently doing the student swap program at University of Dayton, the team was desperate for players this spring, said Maggiolino.
For that fall, it was all right because it was mainly for the players to practice and improve in order to get ready for the championship season, said Maggiolino. However, for their first tournament this spring, the team will have five players and hosting for the first time. Since basketball season has finished, one of the players has joined the golf team, said Maggiolino.
“To improve from the last couple of matches we had because those went kind of bad,” said Tyson Omura, a freshman at Chaminade University. “So I guess (a goal) for the whole team is to see where we stand has a team now.”
This is Omura’s first season playing for the golf team. He is one of the members who was with the team since last fall. He has been playing golf since he was sophomore at high school. Last fall, the team mainly worked on the players’ golf swings.
Now, since the team has a course to practice on, they have been able to play on it and get a feel for it. However, the team still has not managed to get all five players to practice together. So the team’s match coming up will be it first time that all players will play together said Omura.
“Play good and hit the ball well,” said Omura.
This year the team has played twice before the championship season against HPU and BYU-Hawaii. The first match of the year was in Turtle Bay, where Jordan Oda, junior at Chaminade, shot 92 for the round. Omura shot a 102 on the North Shore course. The second game was at Ewa Beach where Oda shot an 81. On the western side of Oahu, Omura shot a 96.
“… This year, I wanted to make sure we filled the team,” said Maggiolino who also coach the golf team in 2005-2006. “That is not the same goal going forward. This year, I want to make sure that we get our matches in for the guys that are competing. I wanted them to have the opportunity to compete. We competed in matches on a couple of different occasion when we didn’t have five guys to compete in the matches.”