LA MIRADA, Calif. --- A new day is dawning for Biola Golf, as for the first time in program history both the men and women's contingents enter the season with a separate head coach.
Hank Woodrome has returned to take over the helm of the men's team, while
Jane Carr continues her role as head women's coach. Both coaches hit the recruiting trail hard over the last year to bring in fresh new talent for the 2014-15 fall and spring seasons.
Woodrome's team consists of nine players, the most since the 2010-11 squad featured 12 different student-athletes. He is returning to the squad size that ushered in some of the most successful seasons in program history, instead of the very small squad size from a year ago.
Cameron Bauer,
Lucas Beltran and
Samuel Shih are three standout freshmen who look join the returners (
Lucas Kinan,
William Langworthy and
Kevin VandeKamp) to make an immediate impact. Also joining the roster is
Fletcher Martin, who will compete in his first eligibility year of golf following a redshirt and playing year for
Dr. Dave Holmquist's men's basketball squad.
Ben Crumley and
Joel Smith are also a part of the 2014-15 roster.
The women's squad is also looking radically different headed into the new school year. After finishing 2013-14 with just three golfers on the official roster, Carr has upped her squad to eight this year.
She added a senior transfer from George Fox,
Whitney Jammerman, and five freshmen, who each have a shot at making Biola's top-five. She lost last season's captain,
Jackie Mata, but maintained
Amanda Hobbs and
Jasmine Rodriguez, two players who were making big strides at the end of the year. Hobbs actually placed fifth individually at the end-of-year GSAC/CalPac Tournament, and she had the lowest tournament score of any Eagle on the roster.
The two teams follow a similar schedule in the fall and the spring, but the men's squad opens play this weekend at the Firestorm Fall Invitational, and the women's side does not open play until Sept. 28, when both teams compete at the Embry-Riddle Co-Ed Invitational.
Both sides are currently slated to compete in seven regular season tournaments.
