After finishing third out of 17 teams at the Rhodes Fall Classic, the Washington and Lee men’s golf team is off to a great start of the season, according to Team Captain Conley Hurst, ‘17.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season.” He said.

For the past two years, the team has been the runner-up of ODAC, each year finishing behind Guilford College.

“The last two seasons have been building years. This year I’m confident we truly have what it takes to compete,” said Hurst. “[Last year,] we missed out on a bid to the Nationals. This year, I’m thinking we can take that extra step.”

The team is currently ranked twenty-fourth in the nation. According to Head Coach Peter Gyscek, the goal for his team this season is to break into the top 15.

“Our strength this season is the depth of our roster,” he said. “We need to improve our tee shots and putting, but If we get better at these two [things] then I think we will reach our goals.”

Two first-years, George May and Zack Spear, joined the team this fall. May was on the starting line-up and played in his first college tournament last weekend.

“All of the members on the team are great, driven guys who willingly give me beneficial advice on and off the course,” May said. “My goal is to help contribute to the team to my best ability and play a solid 36 holes of golf.”

The team practices every other day throughout the week, and plays 18 holes on every Saturday and Sunday at the Lexington Golf & Country Club.

“[The practices] definitely keep me quite busy; it has been a noticeable large transition from high school,” May said.

As the golf team does not host home tournaments, Gyscek said that it is a struggle for his golfers to get support from the W&L student body. Hurst encourages his friends and classmates to keep up with the golf team’s season by visiting generalssports.com.