Woodberry Forest Golf: British Swifts defeat WFS/St. Chris team

Sunday, April 6, 2014

British Swifts defeat WFS/St. Chris team

On Saturday, April 5, a combined Woodberry Forest / St. Christopher's golf team played the British Swifts, a schoolboy team of eight golfers from the UK, at the Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, VA. The Swifts played well, defeating the US team 4-1 in fourball matches. The lone US victory came from the pair of WFS coach Marc Hogan and Kinloch host Jack Fockler beating the Swifts' coaches, Iain Henderson and Keven Johnstone, 2&1.

Since 1969, the Swifts take a biennial tour of the eastern US, arriving in late March for two weeks of golf. Over 200 students from 22 schools on both sides of the Atlantic have participated. Woodberry Forest first hosted the British Swifts in 1971, and last summer, Timothy Walter '13 and Coach Marc Hogan traveled to the UK as part of the American Swifts team.

2014 British Swifts Tour

British Swifts vs. Woodberry Forest/St.Christopher's

Kinloch GC

18 holes par 72

6810 yards

Fourball matches

The British Swifts' schools are listed in parenthesis. The WFS player is listed first in the American pair.

Match Scores

1. Edoardo Lipparelli (Wellington)-Charles Dunn (Warminster) def. Peter Knade-Austin Fockler 7&6

2. Joe Carmody-Firth (Whitgift)- George Haggerty (Harrow) def.Teddy Garner-Trey Romig 1 up

3. Ben Dunlop (Bedford) - Max Cooper (Eton) def.Rob Prater-Connor Johnson 3&2

4. George Mullins (Whitgift) - Nick Acfield (Blundell's) def. Thomas Mack-Coleman Andrews 3&2

5. Marc Hogan-Jack Fockler def. Iain Henderson (Wellington)-Keven Johnstone (Uppingham) 2&1

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.