Ashley Kesselring, COM 250 Reporter & Alex Eberhart, COM 303 Editor
The Berry College Golf program has received several new upgrades this year at Stonebridge Golf Club thanks to an anonymous donor and help from the booster club.
These upgrades include turf mats, sand traps, and the TrackMan swing-tracking machine.
The mats are 60-foot strips of turf that help the teams practice in the rain and preserve the grass. The sand traps or bunkers are on the back range and give the teams another optimal area to practice.
“We won’t reap their benefits until the fall when we can see how much grass [the turf] has saved us,” head coach Brain Farrer said.
The addition of the mats helps not only the golf team but also the students who take the golf class. Farrer said improvements like the mats and TrackMan have added a lot of functionality to practice.
Freshman Henry Jones said the upgrades have improved the practices and strengthened the golf community.
“It’s pretty cool that we get to practice as a team,” Jones said.
Berry is one of the first DIII schools to add the TrackMan, which gives the golf program an advantage over other schools in the area and across the country. The machine has Doppler radar that can track a golf swing in 26 different ways, which helps golfers better identify mistakes in their swings and adjust their form. Jones said having this technology will be helpful when high caliber recruits consider coming to play at Berry. Farrer was able to purchase TrackMan for the program at a discounted price and said that the opportunity was a no-brainer.
Berry is also one of the only DIII schools to have both their own driving range and back range. These facilities are big recruiting points for the program as well.
Another improvement in the golf program’s future is the transition of some of the rough grass to fairway grass. This will increase the size of the practice area for the golfers.
All of these improvements came from the original idea of expanding the tee box. Farrer decided it would be worth the extra money to expand the program in order to increase the team’s opportunity for success.