Freshman Tony Toulon's Golf Diary - Purple and Red Invite

Sept. 20, 2005

Freshman Golfer Tony Toulon reports from the USF men's golf trip to Utah for the Purple and Red Invitational.

Sept. 17: Today was very exciting for me. I just found out two days ago that I had made the traveling squad to Utah and I can't wait to see how my game can perform at the college level. We woke up very early to catch an 8:30 flight to Salt Lake City and everyone was a little tired. My goal for the tournament was to gain some valuable experience and grind out a good score to help out the team. It was obvious that the team was positive and eager to prove that we were a much better team than our first tournament showed. We got to the golf course and spent the day working on our games and adjusting to the quick greens.

Sept. 18: Today was our practice round and we all gained some valuable course knowledge that we would use for tournament play. We all played well and we couldn't wait to surprise some of the other teams. I got to know the team a lot better. Both of the juniors, Moses and Taylor, provided excellent leadership qualities to the young team which really relaxed us. I am very excited to be able to see how I will perform in my first collegiate tournament.

Sept. 19: Today was the first day of my collegiate golf career. I was very anxious for the opening holes and had a tough first round that resulted in a score of 78. I thank my teammates for picking up the slack and recording a respectable score of 299. I was determined to improve on my score for Round 2 but immediately got off to a bad start with my first shot going into the water. I knew that I had plenty of holes in front of me and my teammates were counting on me for a good score. I played far from my best golf but managed to record a 74, which made me very proud. We played very well in the second round and recorded a great score of 291 putting us in 7th place of the 14 team field. Jesse Galvon led the team with a four under par (70- 70-140). Moses played a great second round of 70 putting him at 147 for the day. Kurt and Taylor managed to shoot 153, 154 and helped out the team. We went to Tony Romas to celebrate a great showing.

Sept. 20: The last round of the tournament was today and our goal was to finish off the tournament on a good note. My goal was to improve on my scores from yesterday. I started out again with a bogey but I knew my day was going to get better. I was hitting the ball great and was bound for a good day. I ended up shooting a 1 under par 71. I can't explain how great it felt to break par in my first college tournament but the day was only getting better. When I finished my round I found out that Taylor was already in with an even par 72 and Kurt with a 1 under par 71. Not only was that great but Jesse was still on the course having an amazing day. He finished the round with a 5 under par 67. Moses hung tough and gutted out a score of 79. Our team score today was a 7 under par 281, tying the tournament best. We moved up the leaderboard to a fifth place finish with Jesse taking second place individually. Our final score was 571. This was an amazing day for our team which consisted of a new coach, new assistant coach, three freshmen, and only two returning juniors. To have such great results from such a young team shows that we will be a very competitive team that will only get better and better with experience. I am already looking forward to the next tournament to help show that USF golf is back.