JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mark Berman doesn’t know when. But he has a good idea of where and a better one of who’s on board.
Berman, a media consultant and the father of Jacksonville University senior women’s golfer Hannah Berman, wants to give all college golfers in the Jacksonville area something they lost this spring due to the shutdown of college sports because of the coronavirus.
When normalcy returns, he wants them to have one more chance to play golf not only with their teammates but with all of the men’s and women’s college programs in the area from JU, the University of North Florida and Flagler College, an NCAA Division II school in St. Augustine.
Berman’s idea is to invite every player on those rosters – there are 48 in all – to compete in an 18-hole tournament with an undetermined format.
How the strokes are counted isn’t important, he said.
“These kids didn’t have any finality, any closure to the season – especially the seniors [there are nine on the six rosters],” he said. “I know there are bigger issues in the world and this all seems to far away right now but when things settle down and we get back to something close to normal, I’d like to give them the chance to walk up an 18th fairway, with their teammates waiting behind the green for them to putt out.”
The seniors on those teams are Berman for the JU women, Eduardo Carrette and Thomas Thurloway for the JU men; Sydney Shrader, Teresa Conroy and Natalia Riverao for the UNF women; Michael Mattiace for the UNF men; and Kim Jakobs for the Flagler women.
The good news is that the seniors are likely to have one more year of eligibility if the NCAA grants that to all spring sports athletes, as expected.
It remains open how many of those seniors will actually return. They would still have to maintain a full-time academic schedule to be eligible, which means most would have to take masters courses since they were on target to graduate this spring.
Those seniors also aren’t getting full scholarships in golf so it might not work financially for them to return to school for another year. NCAA Division I men’s coaches have to divide 4.5 scholarships among their players and women’s coaches get six, among rosters that are between seven and 10 student-athletes.
“It’s still a great idea,” said UNF men’s coach Scott Schroeder. “The only thing is that the college coaches can’t have anything to do with it, by NCAA rules. But if others want to pick this up, I’m all for it.”
Berman also said Jacksonville-area products who went elsewhere to play college golf – such as Brandon Mancheno (Auburn), Auston Kim (Vanderbilt), Brett Schell (Ole Miss), Lauren Waidner (Florida), Ramya Meenakshiundaram (South Florida) and Dragon Theam (Army) – would be welcome.
Berman said he is aware that golf is one of a number of college teams that were impacted by the closures. But he said the resources exist to make a golf event happen – any number of facilities and several local governing bodies to help with operating the event.
Berman sent an email to a handful of area golf leaders and it took less than a day for some of them to step up.
Bruce Mohler, director of golf for the Jacksonville Beach Golf Club, has offered the use of the city-owned course. Jack Aschenbach, a member of the Northern Chapter PGA and director of the North Florida Junior Foundation, offered his expertise. So did Randy Nader, president of the Jacksonville Area Golf Association.
“It’s a tremendous idea,” Aschenbach said. “I worked with a lot of these kids in junior golf and they put in a lot of years to get to this point in college, with so many more chances to showcase themselves. It’s a way to reward them for doing what they’ve done in trying to achieve their dreams. I know there’s so much uncertainty right now but maybe now is the best time to plan it.”
How much did the players lose? The UNF men’s team had four tournaments canceled, including The Hayt, an invitational the Ospreys have hosted for the last 28 years.
All of the other college programs had three tournaments left, including their conference championships. And the Flagler men and women would have both defended their team titles at the Peach Belt Conference tournament at the Slammer & Squire.
Berman said the format could be as simple as stroke play or perhaps a mixed-team event, with a male college player paired with a female player, either from the same school or different schools.
He also is thinking about the possibility of a “College Am,” with two adult players paired with two college players, with any proceeds going to area golf course staff who were impacted by layoffs.
“Everything is very much in the discussion phase, obviously,” Berman said.
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