College golf is one of the few sports that has two meaningful seasons during the academic year. Most college programs schedule four or five events in the fall, and results can often become a harbinger of the spring season. The more important season is the spring because it has the conference and national championships.
This particular fall had some great performances among locals. One big blow to the New England golf scene was the back injury that sidelined Michael Thorbjornsen (Wellesley, Mass.) in August. He missed the U.S. Amateur and the Walker Cup. He hasn't played a round for Stanford all year, but he is still near the top in the PGA Tour University rankings.
One challenge this fall for all of college golf was the lack of live scoring and ranking. Golfstat, an institution in college golf for more than 30 years, was replaced by Spikemark, an upstart that made big promises and failed to follow through on any. SpikeMark never got off the ground and has been replaced by Clippd, which hopefully means it will be easier to follow college golf when the spring season rolls around.
Even with the scoring debacle, these local teams and players shined this fall.
