Woodberry Forest Golf: 1/28/24

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

2023 VPL Championship: Same Old Story

History repeats itself. For the third consecutive year, the Tigers came up one shot short of a Prep League title. Collegiate shot 299 to Woodberry’s 300, giving the Cougars their second title in three years.

For the second straight season, the Tigers had five All-Prep golfers by virtue of finishing in the top 10.

Mack Edwards shot 71 to finish third, his second All-Prep honor. Tommy McMillan (2nd All-Prep) and Will Brown (3rd All-Prep) shot 76, and Chris Nabors and James Doyle (1st time All-Prep) both fired 77.

Coach Marc Hogan was later names co-Coach of the Year.

Final

Collegiate 299

Woodberry Forest 300

Trinity Episcopal 306

St. Christopher’s 308

Norfolk Academy 316

State Champions!

The Tigers put together a memorable effort and took the 2023 Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Assocation's title at Meadowbrook Country Club. The 291 score defeated second-place Collegiate by six shots.

With the win, Woodberry garnered its sixth state title. The Tigers have participated in every VISAA Championship since its establishment in 2008.

See this article for more details.

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.