, .. or;. # ; Golfers work for improvement With four of their top five players returning, Harding's golf team entered the 1979 Ale season looking to improve from their fifth place finish last year. "Our returning players saw a lot of action last year," said Coach Phil Watkins as he and the team grew excited about the season's beginning. "All the A le schools have one or two super players," Watkins commented. "The school with the best next three will win." Disappointment came early for the Bisons when they lost two of their top players at the beginning of school. But, with what Watkins described as the hardest working group since he has been at Harding, the team managed to remain competitive. In Ale play, which consisted of six matches with a prescribed point system, the Bisons placed third in the first round. After finishing fourth, fifth and third, respectively, in the next three rounds of play, Harding was just one point behind second place University of Central Arkansas. Going into the last two rounds, which would determine both the AIC champion and the NAIA District 17 representative to the national tournament, Harding remained in third. Ouachita Baptist University from Arkadelphia took first in the AIC on the strength of their showing in the two rounds at the Longhills course in Benton. Although Harding defeated Ouachita in NAIA District 17 competition and placed second overall, the Bisons finished third in the Ale. The Bison'S" Brent Taylor finished the season with the second-best average in the conference at 72.6 strokes, just two-tenths behind the leader. Freshman David Padgett from Little Rock was named to the NAIA's All-District 17 team. With the 1979 season behind them, the Bisons prepared for 1980 by entering the Princess Collegiate Golf Tournament in Freeport, Grand Bahamas September 21-23, 1979. Eight NAIA teams were invited to play in the tournament which was hosted by Texas' Sam Houston State University, the NAIA golf champion of the previous two years. In the tournament, played on the Princess Hotel's 700S-yard, par 72 Emerald Course, Harding placed ninth and Sam Houston State placed first. tE1'1 Swinging in the sun It wasn't exactly your typical holf tournament setting, but Harding players didn't seem to mind as they swung their clubs back into a Bahama sunset. Merging were ten teams from throughout the United States who had come by invitation of their host, Sam Houston State University, to the Bahama Islands for an NAIA golf tournament. The fact that the Bison golfers were second in the conference and were continuing to build their standing attributed to their being invited to participate in the week-long tournament. "The weather was great!" beamed golfer Keith Goree. "There were no cloudy days, and the temperatures were in the mid-SO's and the 90's throughout our stay." Goree, along with the players Brent Taylor, David Padgett, Phil Garnett and John Perry and Coach Phil Watkins, his wife, and two sponsors, brought home a ninth place trophy from the event. "The team spent about six hours a day playing golf," Goree recalled, "and the rest was free time to spend on the beach, around town or getting to know the other teams. We met teams from all over the nation, mainly in the South. Some of the individual participants were from as far away as Scotland." The golf team was one of Harding's first athletic teams to compete outside the United States, and this marked the first year for the golfers to embark on such a trip. "This is the first. but, hopefully not the last time we will compete outside the country. Harding has been invited to come back to the Bahama tournament each year," Goree said. - Beth Parker Hm.l USING his accuracy of the game, Keith Goree tees off 0 11 another hole. 123 Golf
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