Woodberry Forest Golf: 5/16/21

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

2021 Season: VISAA tournament

It was a day for the history books, but the record will show history being unkind to the Tigers' aspirations to win a third consecutive VISAA golf title. Despite shooting a season record-low score of 286 (-2), Woodberry came up short by two strokes to Collegiate. Woodberry held the previous record low score of 293, in the 2018 VISAA championship. It is the first time in program history that the Tigers lost a golf match while shooting under par.

Benny Haggin concludes his Woodberry career by firing a 66 (-6) to earn co-medalists honors with Tatum Walsh of St. Catherine's. It is a record low 18-hole score to par, as well as the lowest score by a Woodberry golfer since 2002--Chris Brown, 65 (-5) here at Woodberry Forest during the first round of the Prep League tournament. Benny's first-place finish also earns him his third All-State honors, the fourth Tiger golfer to accomplish this feat.

Benny becomes the first Woodberry golfer to average under par--34.86, a new record. He also sets a new career scoring average mark of 36.27, bettering Ted Haley's (1993-95) previous record of 36.62.

Will Brown concludes his first season with a -1 round of 71 to earn All-State honors. Will finishes with the second-lowest third form scoring average (37.72) in program history to Benny Haggin's 2018 mark of 37.56.

Turner Edwards got off to a slow start but steadied himself to card a +1 round of 73 (t11th). Turner ends the season with a scoring average of 36.64, the 14th best among all Woodberry golfers.

Finally, the 2021 golf team of Benny Haggin, John Tandberg, Coops Cooper, Turner Edwards, Bennett Perry, and Will Brown sets the record for the lowest match scoring average for the top six: 37.40, eclipsing the mark of 37.41 set by the undefeated 2002 team.

Please congratulate all these fine young men on a terrific year.

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.