Given the luxury of a fresh start, the golf team plans to waste no time looking back. Coming off a spring season in which the Owls placed no higher than seventh overall in a tournament, the team is ready to move on.
“Golf is a game of short-term memory loss, whether it is a bad tournament or a bad shot, you can’t dwell on the past,” senior Matt Teesdale said. “You just have to keep moving forward and staying positive.”
Working toward a better season starts in the summer and Teesdale and junior Brandon Matthews are leading the way.
Teesdale, who has competed in four tournaments this summer, including the U.S. Amateur Championship, has had a change of mentality. During the summer, Teesdale has put more emphasis on golf, which he said he failed to do in previous years.
“I really didn’t focus much on golf, which was a mistake,” Teesdale said.
That change in philosophy may have played a part in Teesdale’s placing first at the Philadelphia Open Championship and third at the Patterson Cup. The surge of success has the Horsham, Pennsylvania native ready for the upcoming season.
“I’m feeling a lot more confident and I feel like I can compete with the best of them,” Teesdale said.
Matthews, on the other hand, competed in six tournaments, including the U.S. Amateur Championship and The Amateur Championship in Ireland.
“It’s been kind of a disappointing summer,” Matthews said. “It can change with one tournament.”
The team finished winless in all of the 2013-14 season and is looking to win its first tournament since April 2013.
With a strong incoming recruiting class, including senior Patrick Ross, who redshirted last season and nearly qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championships this summer, Teesdale sees a bright future.
“I feel that for Temple’s program, the sky is the limit,” Teesdale said. “We have great golfers on the team.”
“We have a team that is very talented and we have a lot of players that actually care every day,” Matthews said. “Every day they want to go out and play golf. I think this team can do something really, really big.”
Despite strong feelings regarding a turnaround, Teesdale and Matthews said they realize they cannot look too far ahead. The duo feels looking toward the future can cause a distraction, and currently their sole focus lies with the season opener.
“I never get ahead of myself,” Matthews said. “You have to stay in the present. You can’t be thinking about your next tournament.”
“I like to play it one shot at a time and whatever happens, happens,” Teesdale said.
You can reach Michael Guise at michaelguise@temple.edu and on twitter @MikeG2511
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