Woodberry Forest Golf: 4/5/15

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Team photos are here!

Bengal

Varsity A & B

Varsity Captains Peter Knade and Hawk Swearingen

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Golfers enjoy a round at Country Club of Culpeper

Thanks to Bob Hudson ’73 for hosting the varsity team today at the Country Club of Culpeper. The guys had a great day of golf!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Photos posted on Woodberry Photo Album

Enjoy beautiful photos from John Berry.

Woodberry Photo Album, Varsity Golf vs. St. Chris

Player Profile: Rob Prater ’16

Rob Prater

5th Form

St. Simons Island, GA

Handicap: 3.5

Best golf memory: Of all the golf memories I have had, the best and most memorable rounds that I have played are ones that I played with my dad. From the age of about 10 to the present, my Dad and I would go out quite frequently to the golf course and walk nine holes, talk, and really bond. I can recall the year before I came to Woodberry as one of the rounds over the summer that my dad and I played. It was the typical time of about 4:00 PM, and Dad and I had, as always, rushed to the tee without any sort of practice and teed off. We played the front nine of Plantation (one of the courses of Sea Island), and I vividly remember him telling me how much my life was going to change now that I was going off to Woodberry. We were walking in, the sun was setting, we had both completely forgotten about our score or the typical friendly wager we had for some manual labor (from me) versus a trip to the local ice cream parlor, and I now realize it was a win-win for my Dad. The advice I would receive from him during these rounds, whether it be about girls or school, it was always significant. But all in all every found I have the opportunity to play with my Dad are the most fun and meaningful, and those are the rounds that I will remember forever.

Best course you've played: St. Andrews (Old Course)

Best course you've never played: Augusta National

Favorite golf movie: Caddyshack, obviously.

Favorite pro golfer: Matt Kuchar

If you weren't a golfer, what sport would you go pro in? Eating

If you had a pair of golf pants with little pictures all over them, what would the pictures be? Small prints of Dogs sitting in a regal, blue chair, holding a golf club like a sword as if he had just conquered something.

Best golf advice you've ever gotten? Swing easy and accept the extra distance

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.