Woodberry Forest Golf: Senior Day 2024

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Senior Day 2024

Today's matches versus Eastern Mennonite and Episcopal mark the last home events for the following seniors. Please congratulate this group of young men on their accomplishments and see them in action today beginning at 4 pm.

Gray Smith -- has been a varsity player for the past two seasons. In four matches last year, Gray averaged 40.25 strokes. Today will be Gray's second match played this season. Gray has not yet decided where he is going to college next year.

Jack Wilson - Jack has been a two-year varsity letter winner. Last season, Jack played in two matches and averaged 42.00 strokes. This year, Jack has improved his average to 40.80. He is playing in his third match today. Jack will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill next fall.

Hunter Hueman - Hunter has been a varsity golfer all three years at Woodberry. He played in three matches in his fourth-form year, averaging 40.33 strokes. Last year, Hunter played in five events, averaging 39.67 strokes. This year, he has improved, averaging 38.40 strokes in qualifying and two matches. Hunter will attend Wake Forest University in the fall.

Chris Nabors - A four-year varsity golfer, Chris averaged 40.50 strokes in his first season. As a fourth-former, he played in five matches, averaging 39.67 strokes. Last year, Chris made All-Prep and helped the Tigers to the 2023 VISAA state championship. He played in nine events and improved to a 38.27 stroke average. Chris has averaged 39.29 in seven matches this year. Chris will attend Wofford College in the fall.

Will Brown - A three-time All-Prep League and All-State golfer, Will ranks fourth all-time in career scoring average. Only two other WFS golfers have earned All-Prep during their first three seasons. Will is one of five Tigers who have earned All-State honors three times.

As a third-former, Will had the third-lowest stroke average (37.72) and won the team's MVP award. The next year, Will improved his scoring average (36.33) and won his second MVP award.

Elected captain for the 2023 season, Will had the second-best season in WFS golf history. He averaged 35.43 strokes and led the Tigers to the 2023 state championship. Will won the William H. White Golf Trophy Prize as the team's most outstanding player. He was again elected captain, the first two-time golf captain since 2007-08.

This season Will has been the medalist in four matches. His invaluable leadership has propelled the Tigers to an undefeated season and #1 ranking in the state golf poll.

Will has accepted a spot on the Wofford College men's golf team next 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.