VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- From the first day Virginia Wesleyan head golf coach Tom Hall arrived on campus at Virginia Wesleyan, he made his intentions clear.
"From the very first day we had the conversation, the conversation was all about winning a national championship," recalled Hall, now in his second season at the head of the Marlins' program.
Last week saw the department take a big step towards making that happen. Virginia Wesleyan installed two state-of-the-art simulators, thanks to a donation from Marlins' alumnus Eric Nyman. The Foresight GC Falcon and GC quad both now reside at the Eric Nyman Performance Golf Center.
"When this idea was brought to us a little bit ago, we had no idea that it would be this big," noted sophomore golfer Steven Harper. "We're just very fortunate."
"I didn't know if it would actually happen and then it actually did, which I think was really cool," added freshman Juliette Coffey. "I was just like 'wow, that's crazy.'"
"We didn't quite realize it was going to be this capacity," Hall pointed out. "It's program-changing."
It's also the best in the business. Golfers can get their swings in out of the elements, regardless of what Mother Nature chooses to do on any given day. They can also track every statistic imaginable and play a simulated version of any golf course in the world.
"We haven't even used it for a semester yet and I'm already looking forward to, in between classes, coming down and hitting some golf balls," smiled Harper.
"We have one place where we can see all of our statistics," said freshman Mia Skaggs. "Every time we hit a shot we can see the ball flight and the club path and all of those statistics."
The set-up puts the program a little bit further down the fairway than most of its Division III counterparts. The Marlins are one of the few teams at their level to boast such technology.
"To this extent and to this level and the size and the capability of this facility, we're in the top one percent of Division III right now," noted freshman Nicholas Barnes.
"Comparatively speaking, I don't know that there are many D-III's out there that have what we have," Hall added. "As a matter of fact, I would bet that there are a lot of D-I's that don't have what we have."
The Virginia Wesleyan head coach is always looking to reel in the next group of talented junior golfers. He hopes the new additions to the program will help with that.
"Providing something like this on campus gives us the opportunity compete with some of the best programs in the country and certainly make us one of those as well as we move forward," he said.
"If I had seen this coming to the campus I'd be like 'oh, this place is awesome, I can tell they have great dedication to helping us improve,'" Skaggs added.
VWU is clearly a program on the rise. The new facilities help the golfers not only improve their game, but build team chemistry and camaraderie as well, providing an emotional boost. Now the Marlins hope the hard work they're putting in on the simulators will translate to lower scorecards.
"It's been all smiles," Hall pointed out. "It's just overwhelming when it all comes at one time, when you have very little on campus to provide them and then all of a sudden this shows up."
"From a standpoint of taking our program from somewhere that's been in the same place for the last 20 years, we're really going to be able to make an impact coming this spring," Barnes projected.
Virginia Wesleyan opens its season March 3 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
