Sophomore Matt Hill had a spectacular year by any measure: eight tournament wins, including the NCAA title. In the July edition of Triangle Golf Today, writer Tim Peeler lays out a compelling case for it being the best ever year by a collegiate golfer: Hill won six straight events to end the year, capping his season off with a national title. He is currently ranked #2 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, and his name is being mentioned in the same sentence as other great collegiate golfers. He is more than halfway towards Phil Mickelson’s record of 16 NCAA competition titles, for example. He has won as many NCAA titles as Tiger Woods. Heady company, indeed.
Triangle Golf Today: Hill Turns In Arguably The Greatest Year in College Golf (be warned, TGT uses a weird and irritating web reader)
Hill will also have a new championship golf course to call home next season, as NC State is opening the Lonnie Poole Golf Course, a 7,358 yard beast from the tips that is already garnering rave reviews.
“The thing I like best about this course is that you could put it anywhere and it would be a fantastic course, but when you put it with the views of the city and the proximity to downtown …” said Chip Watson of Carolinas Golf Group and the general manager of the golf course. “Arnold Palmer said it best: ‘We’ve never built a course anywhere close to a city like that.'”
Two of the Palmer Design Company’s top course architects, NCSU graduates Erik Larsen and Brandon A. Johnson, handled much of the on-site supervision. The par-71 course, carved out of 200 acres of former farmland at the southernmost end of Centennial Campus, will have five sets of tees, allowing the challenging layout to play as long as 7,358 yards.
With three players already on the Tour (Carl Petterson, Tim Clark and Marc Turnesa) things are looking up for Wolfpack golf in a big way.
