Success is nothing new to Logan Terry.
After a brilliant career at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School, Terry was named the Junior PGA Player of the Year. As a freshman, he is now carrying the Owls into the Atlantic Ten Championships following three top 10 finishes this season.
And Terry was not even supposed to be an Owl.
Initially, Terry verbally committed to play golf at Binghamton (N.Y.) University. Temple coach Bill Mannino thought he had lost his recruit until Terry e-mailed him about the prospect of playing at Temple.
“I was honest with him,” Mannino said. “I told him we didn’t have a driving range. I told him we didn’t have any fancy courses. He just came in, started playing with us and just played great.”
In the fall alone, Terry finished in the top 20 in five of six tournaments in which he competed. He finished in the top 10 in his first two collegiate events, but soon after lost control of his game and finished in the top 20 only once during a span of seven outings.
“I’d like to be a little more consistent,” Terry said. “I have had a few good finishes, but then again I haven’t finished well either. I would like to see myself win an event or just have some more top three finishes before the year is done.”
Mannino doesn’t think first place finishes are far off for Terry either. At this stage in his career Terry is the most talented golfer Mannino has ever coached, but he recognizes there is room for improvement.
“Logan never gets too high and he never gets too low as far as his emotions are concerned,” Mannino said. “He hasn’t even reached his potential. I expect him to win golf tournaments from here on out.”
Terry knows he has yet to reach his potential, even though he won A-10 Rookie of the Week honors twice this season. He said the honors don’t mean much when he realizes he still has plenty to learn.
“I just know that I’m playing collegiate golf and that’s reassuring enough,” he said. “Playing the courses has been pretty easy for me. I’ve made a nice transition [from high school to college].”
Entering the final round of his last outing at the Princeton Invitational earlier this month, Terry was in contention to capture the tournament title. On top of that, he was paired with one of the best players in Temple’s region, Towson University’s Billy Wingerd.
At first, teeing off with one of the nation’s premier golfers intimidated Terry. But he shot a three-over-par to place seventh overall, and knocked Wingerd off by five strokes in the process.
“I was definitely nervous,” Terry said. “I knew I had him from the first hole. I just played my game from then on.”
This weekend, Temple will hit the links at the Scotty Duncan Memorial Tournament in Delaware. Regarding the team’s chances for postseason success, Terry said confidence is the team’s “X- factor” to advance past the likes of A-10 foes George Washington and host school Rhode Island.
“Our team itself is built behind a group of confident golfers,” Terry said. “We can win it all [the A-10 title] and get to Regionals. We will just have to get by a few good teams in the conference to do so.”
Christopher A. Vito can be reached at cvitox01@temple.edu.
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