The Hood women’s golf program is in its fifth season as part of Hood Athletics, and the team is beginning to make a name for itself.
Thomas Chatfield became the head coach of the women’s team in January 2019. Prior to receiving the head coach position, Chatfield was one of Hood’s athletic trainers and now holds both jobs.
“The biggest thing with managing both jobs is constant communication and the help of everyone,” Chatfield said.
The men’s program has been an established team for quite some time, with Chad Dickman coaching since 2013. Dickman also manages two jobs, as he is the head coach of the men’s basketball team at Hood as well.
“Coaching two college sports is crazy, but I try to make it work,” Dickman said. “My assistant coach, Sean Stanistreet, has been an outstanding asset to the program, and Thomas Chatfield, has also helped out a lot with our team. Both those guys are a lot smarter than me. We’ve also brought in great, responsible young men on both teams, so that’s half the battle right there.”
College golf runs in both the fall and spring semesters. The NCAA allows for 19 weeks of competition between the two semesters and the individual coaches select how many weeks of play they will undertake. Chatfield and Dickman both split the 19 weeks evenly between the fall and spring.
There are currently eight players on the women’s team, and the starting five are all first-year students. Mary Emma Guldi and Katelyn Davis are leading the team through this record-breaking season.
In the second tournament of the year, Guldi shot an 88 to break the previous individual scoring record, which was 90 set by Jenna Frick.
In October, Davis then broke the record again, defeating Guldi’s 88 record, by shooting an 85. Davis now holds the newest individual scoring record for women’s golf.
Along with breaking the individual record twice, the group has set three new team scoring records. Team score is determined by combining the top four scores that day. The previous record was a 454, and the team scored a 366 to beat it on the same day Davis set her record.
“The program has grown a lot,” Chatfield said. “When it first started there were some growing pains trying to establish a whole new program, but now we have a good general foundation.”
On the men’s side, brothers Tanner and Brady Leonard, along with Sam Driscoll, are leading the team of 11 golfers to another successful season. The men have played in three tournaments so far this year, coming in first twice and second once.
“We have the exact same team as last year, so I think the experience has been key,” Dickman said. “The guys are also very selfless and try to help each other out with as much information on courses, holes, as possible. We’ve improved as a program almost every year and that’s allowed us to recruit more talented golfers.”
Dickman became the first head coach at Hood to win a MAC championship with the men’s basketball program just this past February. He has high hopes to clinch another title, but this time with his golf team. “I will say that coaching golf is much less stressful than coaching basketball,” Dickman said.
The women’s team will have a strong force with all the players coming back even stronger and more seasoned in the fall and will work to continue making a name for the program and growing together.
“Our goal is to learn,” Chatfield said. “This is their first year playing college golf, so hopefully they can learn more and go into the summer with renewed vigor and work on getting themselves growth.”
The MAC tournament starts the weekend of April 23 for both teams.
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