Woodberry Forest Golf: Golfer organizes clinic to earn Eagle Scout rank

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Golfer organizes clinic to earn Eagle Scout rank

Richard Hunt '13 recently organized a golf clinic for youth at the Lucy Ann Boddie Brewer Boys and Girls Club in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in pursuit of his Eagle Scout rank. He gathered donations of money and used golf clubs and taught the kids the rules of golf and the proper golf swing. After the clinic, the clubs and excess money were donated to the Boys and Girls Club to help establish a golf program. A Woodberry Forest senior and member of the varsity golf team, Richard is grateful to his supporters. "I really enjoyed planning and leading this junior golf program," he says. "The kids had fun and learned about a sport many had never had an opportunity to play."

Richard described the outcome in his letter to his supporters:

Dear Friends of Scouting,

I am pleased to report that I have completed my Leadership Service Project and am preparing to meet with the BSA Eagle Review board. The project was a huge success and was very rewarding for me and for the scouts who helped me. Thanks to your generous contributions of golf clubs and money, we were able to create 15 sets of clubs for the kids at the Boys and Girls Club. We cleaned and put new grips on all of the clubs and purchased Ping bags to carry them in.

The kids participated in golf clinics on July 30 and August 6^th at Benvenue Country Club. We reviewed the history and rules of the game and introduced the kids to the fundamentals of a proper golf swing. The kids loved practicing on the driving range and the putting green. We finished our final session with a 4 hole match. The 15 sets of clubs and $2500 were donated to the Lucy Ann Boddie Brewer Boys and Girls Club of Rocky Mount to help establish a golf program for the kids.

Thank you for supporting my project with your contributions of money, used clubs and words of encouragement. I really enjoyed planning and leading this junior golf program. The kids had fun and learned about a sport that many had never had an opportunity to play.

Sincerely,

Richard Hunt IV

BSA Troop 40

Golf Facilities

Our golf facilities are unmatched. The only high school in Virginia with its own course, Woodberry plays its home matches on a nine-hole golf course designed in 1926 by Donald Ross. We also have the Graves Golf Practice Area, built in 1991, which has a driving range, two practice greens and sand bunkers. With our Doppler-based TrackMan launch monitors, we can track each player’s clubhead speed, ball speed, launch angle, and carry distance. We can then use this data to test different equipment. Our indoor putting green allows us to practice putting and short-game skills in any weather.

Coach’s Corner: Varsity Golf Coach Marc Hogan

Of the campus’s many resources, the school’s golf facilities truly set it apart. With a nine-hole Donald Ross-designed golf course and a range of other amenities for the teaching of golf, Woodberry is poised to nurture the young golfer. And no one is more suited to bring together the promising golfers who choose Woodberry Forest with traditional techniques honed at the Graves Practice Area and modern-day technological tools installed in the Squash Pavilion than Marc Hogan.

Having worked with the golf program for over twenty years, Marc holds a Level III golf teaching certification from the United States Golf Teachers' Federation and a Level I golf fitness instructor certification from the Titleist Performance Institute. He was the first coach certified in the DECADE course management system, which teaches players course strategy. His contributions to the game have been honored by the Virginia Prep League, which has named him Coach of the Year nine times, and by VISAA, which has awarded him the title six times.

As he does in his English classroom, Marc embraces technology in the teaching of golf. With particular support from Mitch Hull ’77 and past parents Hallie and Ed Pettegrew, as well as an anonymous gift, the school has video-recording devices, computers, and three launch monitors that analyze a player’s stroke and help him match it to swings used by the world’s most successful golfers.

Marc is a Greensboro, North Carolina, native and earned his BA and MA from the University of Virginia. He has taught English at Woodberry Forest since 1987. A scratch golfer, Marc has qualified for the Virginia Senior Amateur Championship six times and made match play four times in 2017, 2019 (round of 16), 2020, and 2021. He has also qualified for the VSGA Amateur Championship in 2021 and 2022. He lives in the Rapp House with his wife Linda, who works in Culpeper. They have three daughters, Miranda, who lives and works in Staunton; Anna Grey ’14, who lives and works in Charlottesville; and Cordelia '17, who lives and works in Charlotte.