Sports

Darton’s depth its biggest weapon, dilemma

• The Cavaliers’ depth from Nos. 1-5 is once again the focus as the golf team aims for its seventh region title in a row at Monday’s tournament at Helen.

Scott Chancey

ALBANY — Depth is the essence of Darton College’s golf team.

The Cavaliers have won the past six NJCAA Region XVII titles and past three Division II national championships.

A notion that the fifth-seeded golfer can perform as well as the first has been a staple since the run of three national crowns in a row began in 2005.

Case in point in the past three national tournaments: top seed Brent Witcher (now at Valdosta State and currently NCAA Division II’s top golfer) earned medalist honors in 2005, fifth-seeded golfer Ryan Parker was a first-team All-American in 2006 and third-seeded Bill Jones III (now the top player at Mercer) earned medalist honors last year.

And ex-Deerfield star Brandon Anthony, after not qualifying to be part of Darton’s team for the 2005 national tournament, entered anyway because he was a 2004 first-team All-American and played as an individual, becoming a First-Team All-American again.

“It’s really competitive, that’s the advantage” said Evan Hanna, who is the team’s fifth seed in this year’s region tournament held Monday and Tuesday at Helen’s Innsbruck Country Club.

Eighteen holes will be played Monday and 36 the next day.

Added Hanna: “You have to play good every day.”

Darton’s top seed in this week’s region tournament, Chesley Gunn, won last fall in a tournament hosted by Abraham Baldwin. Second-seed Matt Smith won the final regular-season tournament at Stonebridge Golf & Country Club, Jin Chung was medalist last fall at Meadow Links and in the spring at Scottsboro, and fourth seed Coleman Calhoun — a First-Team All-American last year — was medalist at Piedmont last fall, as well as in the spring at Meadow Links.

Also, Andy Lewis, who is this week’s alternate, tied for second with Chung at the spring opener in Melbourne, Fla.

“If you don’t play well, someone else will step up,” Chung said.

Added Gunn: “I feel as confident in the five we have going as anyone. We may not always hit birdies as often as we should have, but the potential to go low on the scorecard is always there.”

The difference is in the results. Darton won four out of five fall tournaments, and placed first in three other spring events. In those three events Darton did not win, the Cavaliers placed second.

“That definitely plays to our advantage,” Smith said. “If one of your top two seeds don’t play well, even our fourth or fifth-seeded players are capable of having a good round.”

This year’s team, however, is different in a sense. Witcher was the consistent No. 1 in 2005-06, and Troy Bartkowicz was most often at No. 1 last season. The Cavaliers have struggled all this season trying to find consistent No. 1 and 2 golfers leading the charge.

In tournaments, that could add pressure to the other three team members, knowing there is less room for error.

“All up and down the line, we’ve got to play more solid,” Darton coach Dale Dover said. “We’ve got to have more consistency in the lineup, you can’t have those wild fluctuations. You can have a bad round, but the rest really have to be consistent to cover it. You certainly can’t have two bad scores.”

Calhoun points out, however, that Darton still has had a strong season despite that.

“I’m not really concerned,” he said. “No one is going to go every day in the 60’s, but to struggle like we have, we’ve still done well.”

Calhoun, however, had an impressive practice round Friday at Doublegate County Club, carding a 3-under-par 69. Meanwhile, Gunn finished at 6-under.

All in all, it’s the most important time of the year, and it seems the Cavaliers are hitting their stride, depth and all.

“We just need to focus on what we need to do,” Calhoun said. “If we can do that, we’ll be all right.”

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