Inaugural season of the NCF Banyans golf program is imminent

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – Golf season is starting at colleges in the Sunshine State, and the Banyans at New College of Florida have been patiently waiting for the start of their inaugural season.

For both the men's and women's teams, it's two weeks until the school's first collegiate tournament. This moment has been nearly a year in the making… and both head coaches tell me their groups are ready to take the college golf world by storm.

“We're super excited,” said Drew Mitchell, head coach of the NCF men's golf team. “It's been a long time coming. Ten months has flown by, but at the same time, it feels like it was just yesterday when I was hired for the job.”

“[We’re a] a brand new program,” said Judy Carlson, head coach of the NCF women’s golf team.[We have] brand new girls. One of them is from Utah and has never seen the campus. The others have only seen it once or twice.”

What is most impressive is how the startup program was able to assemble the squad for the first season. “We want to instill core values,” Michell said. “We want to make sure that the student-athletes are supporting the core mission of the school.”

Mitchell is entering his first season as a college golf coach. He is the former head coach of the boys golf team at Cardinal Mooney and has already noticed big differences between the college game and what he saw at the high school level.

“I probably have to push the guys sometimes to go out and do something,” Mitchell said. “Sometimes we might not want to play nine holes. We just wanted to play a certain number of holes. I have a hard time getting the guys off the golf course here.”

Mitchell's messages have appealed to Teagan Miller, a first-year transfer student at New College. “I think it's really cool,” Miller said. “We have a really good coach, a really good group of guys, and I think it would be really cool to be a part of something like building a program.”

When it comes to starting the first tournament, Mitchell couldn't be more excited. “There's always going to be adversity,” Mitchell said. “There's always going to be challenges. At the end of the day, it's about overcoming the challenges to get better.”

The first women's tournament will take place on September 6th, the first men's tournament on September 9th.

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