TLU Golf: Driving toward the top
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Head coach H.C. Tran '90
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| By Tim Clark |
A rainy October day in San Antonio couldn’t dampen H.C. Tran’s mood. At the time, the Texas Lutheran head coach for women’s and men’s golf teams was striding alongside a fairway, watching Angela Aufderhaar compete in a playoff for her first collegiate title. A few minutes earlier, the Bulldogs had clinched their first women’s team title since 1999. Now Tran followed Aufderhaar’s quest to end the seven-year individual title drought for the women’s team.
A chip within 10 feet and then a par-saving putt into the heart of the hole clinched the victory for Aufderhaar. The individual win added to the team performance that placed the Bulldogs ahead of 2006 NCAA Division III national tournament participants Mary Hardin-Baylor and Hardin-Simmons and vaulted TLU to No. 22 in the NCAA DIII/GolfStat national rankings.
“(The team’s play) was a beautiful thing to watch,” said Tran. “The women are working so hard to make this a special season. With such a young team (five freshmen, a sophomore and two juniors), I don’t think they know how good they could be. We’re tying to tell them.”
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| H.C.Tran, left, is TLU’s head golf coach.This year Golf Digest ranked TLU among the top 50 schools in the nation that provide student-golfers “the absolute best education and the opportunity to play.” |
The resurgence of the women’s program and the continued growth of the men’s golf team at TLU have taken considerable dedication from Tran, a 1990 graduate and a member of the 1990 men’s NAIA national runner-up squad. Tran took over both programs shortly after TLU’s decision to join the NCAA Division III, the non-scholarship athletic arm of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The transition to NCAA Division III took some time for the golf programs, which enjoyed a wealth of success in the NAIA. The Bulldogs were team NAIA national runner-ups in men’s golf in 1990 and in women’s golf in 1999, and the programs produced three individual NAIA national champions – John Bohmann in 1967, Cameron Beckman in 1991 and Elizabeth Hoffman in 1999. The women and men’s golf teams combined for 22 national tournament appearances in the NAIA.
But with Tran at the helm, the Bulldogs have asserted themselves at the national level in the NCAA Division III. In 2003, women’s golfer Theresa Ashorn played in the NCAA Division III National Championship and finished 38th. In 2004, the men’s golf team was ranked in the NCAA DIII/GolfStat Top 20 for the entire season.
In 2005, the Bulldog men broke into the NCAA DIII National Championships field for the first-time in school history and posted a 12th-place team finish with individual golfer Josh Werland claiming TLU’s first-ever NCAA DIII All-American honor. The 2006 men’s season built on the 2005 success with a first-ever American Southwest Conference team title, a second ASC individual crown (won by Michael Faterkowski) and a second straight trip to the NCAA DIII National Championships. TLU again finished 12th and Werland again claimed an All-American citation at the national tournament.
In August of this year, TLU learned that both the women’s and men’s programs claimed Top 50 rankings in the Golf Digest “Academics First” listing. In announcing the “Academics First” list, Golf Digest stated: “For (junior golfers) who are excellent students first, golfers second, these schools provide the absolute best education and an opportunity to play.” The Top 50 included NCAA Division I, II and III colleges and universities that did not award athletics scholarships for golf. The TLU men’s program was ranked ahead of Division I schools William & Mary, Colgate, Fairfield, Brown, Bucknell and Lafayette.
“We feel that we can be at the national tournaments every year,” said Tran. “With TLU’s academic reputation and our ability to compete nationally in both programs, we can’t help but be excited about the future.”
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