On Thursday, August 13, thousands of collegiate athletes learned they would no longer be competing during the Fall 2020 season due to COVID-19 health concerns. Furman Men’s Golf was no different; most, if not all, members of the team saw the inevitable coming. The lack of a fall season, however, is not deterring either the players or head coach Matt Davidson from reaching their team’s goals.
At the beginning of the summer the team met virtually over Zoom to discuss their performance and to process goals. One of their goals is mental resilience. Mental resilience has been key for Furman’s players, especially with all the speculation and rumors surrounding Division-I fall sports. Team captains Keller Harper (5th Year) and Jack Crosby (Senior) embody this mental resilience, and both managed to find ways to post low scores this summer despite the COVID-19 distractions.
Jack Crosby is coming to campus with great momentum. In August, Crosby won the prestigious Tennessee Amateur Championship. He fired low rounds of 67-68-70-69 to finish at fourteen under par and win by three strokes. Crosby has always been an incredible athlete and outstanding ball striker. When asked what made the biggest difference in his game, he simply replied, “I changed putters this week and just kept filling up the cup.” Jack has already etched his mark in the collegiate winner’s circle at the Camden Collegiate Invitational back in 2019 and is poised to take home more hardware in the spring season.
Keller Harper also had a high-performing summer. In the South Eastern Amateur hosted by the Country Club of Columbus, Harper finished 5th place, firing a seven under (67-68-68) to finish among some of the game’s top amateur golfers. Earlier in the summer he posted rounds of 69-70-68 to finish tied for 5th at the G Rock Open. This spring, Harper looks to defend the Furman Intercollegiate, which he won in the spring of 2019. Already a two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year, he continues to stick to the team’s goals, receive a plethora of accolades and stay on track to go down as one of the greatest golfers Furman University has produced.
At the helm, Coach Davidson continues to build the Men’s Golf program to its former glory. Each year as head coach he has spurred the team to tournament wins, runner up finishes and top five finishes. Every year Matt Davidson has been coach, Furman Golf records have been broken, the alumni base becomes more invigorated and recruiting classes grow stronger and stronger.
When asked about the lack of a fall season, Davidson calmly responded, “there is definitely a little bit of disappointment just because the team was ready to play great this fall, and they love playing golf and playing in tournaments. We’ll practice, train, and improve this fall and hopefully it will lead to an even better spring season that we all are looking forward to. But student health and safety are most important, and we will just view this as an opportunity to adapt and overcome a challenge.”