But that might not be the biggest news facing the Knights. Coach Jason Willow has announced his resignation effective at the end of the season citing a desire to spend more time with his family. Willow has served as women’s coach for the past three years, and was interim men’s coach in 2010.

The Gannon women, who captured the 2011 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference team title in October, registered a two-day total of 663 at the par-72 Perry Park Golf Course. The University of Indianapolis took home first place Sunday, when its score of 597 bested Ashland University by 15 strokes. Sophomore Bhanisha Nagindas was Gannon’s top finisher when her nine-over-par score gave her 19th out of 120 golfers. Nagindas rebounded from a first-round 81 to card a 74 Sunday.

Willow said he wasn’t satisfied with the performance.

“Usually if one of our girls has a bad round, the other girls are able to pick them up, but that wasn’t the case this weekend,” he said.

The Knights will try to regroup this weekend, when they play the Ohio Dominican Invitational Saturday and Sunday. Gannon will then return to Erie, where it will compete in the Mercyhurst and Gannon invitationals. Willow said Gannon’s performance could affect its chances at making the Regional tournament at the end of April.

“We needed to do a lot in the tournament for region positioning, but unfortunately we took a devastating hit with this weekend,” Willow said. “I think we still have a decent chance of one or two individuals, but as far as a team, we have an uphill battle.”

JOE CUNEO

cuneo001@knights.gannon.edudsff

The Knights, led by sophomore medalist Amanda Teodorsson, came home as the proud 2011 PSAC champions.

Teodorsson shot rounds of 76 and 77 and took home first-place honors. She finished five strokes ahead of her friend and roommate Bhanisha Nagindas, who shot rounds of 78 and 80 and tied for second overall with Maria Lopez of California University of Pennsylvania.

Teodorsson said she approached each day with her focus on the competition, not the location.

“I compete with other players, not the course,” she said.

Gannon coach Jason Willow said he was thrilled with the outcome, especially given the poor weather that his team endured. Teodorsson said she tried to make the best of the conditions.

“Everyone was struggling,” she said. “I tried to tell myself I’m used to this weather.”

Willow also said he left Hershey with a sense of relief as the Knights were able to beat Cal with 13 strokes to spare.

“It’s nice to get the monkey off our back,” Willow said.

The Knights have been particularly unlucky against Cal in recent matchups, as they haven’t been able to knock off their conference rival in the past two years.

Willow also said he was pleased with the fact that Gannon brought home all the major awards from the event. In addition to the team title and Teodorsson’s individual honors, senior Kelly Nickerson also received the Champion Scholar Award.

Nickerson, who tied for eighth with teammate Saskina Merz, received the award after earning a 4.0 GPA as a senior sport and exercise science major.

Willow said he thought the fact that Gannon captured all the major awards was a testament to the hard work the Knights have put in on the course and in the classroom.

Kiersten Klekner-Alt also contributed to the championship effort with an impressive first round of 78 and a total of 160, which earned fifth-place honors.

Although she tied for second overall, Nagindas said nothing was working well, and that she was forced to just “grind” and focus on each shot.

Despite the weather, the friends and roommates, Teodorsson and Nagindas, were able to keep each other composed enough for first- and second-place efforts. This was due in part to a motto that they adopted early in the weekend.

“In the beginning, we hugged and said, ‘fight for every stroke,’” Nagindas said.

The Lady Knights will conclude the 2011 season at the Grand Valley invitational on Saturday and Sunday.

ALEX WOMER

womer003@knights.gannon.edu

Anyone who has ever played the age-old game can understand, and even sympathize, with this insight from the legendary Gary Player.

Throughout its rich history, golf has continuously managed to baffle, consume and amaze anyone who dare pick up a club.

Many have sought the key to finding the perfect method of playing the game, but few, if any, have unlocked the answer.

“The bottom line is getting people to make contact with the club square,” Gannon University women’s golf coach Jason Willow said.

The strategy involved with hammering a small white ball squarely on a slightly larger golf club face is as vital to success as the strategy to find the end zone in football.

And just about every professional will agree that it all begins with the most basic fundamental of the game: the swing.

Golf pros submit to many schools of thought when it comes to the swing. While many gravitate toward a classic, athletic way of ball-striking, others try to perfect a strategic and tactical approach to manipulating the ball.

Watch any golf tournament, and the assortment of methods is as unique as the golfers themselves.

“With golfers, they are very personal about their game,” Gannon men’s golf coach Ryan Paris said. “I want the players to ask me, because every one of them is an individual, and you can’t make the mistake of thinking that what works for one player is going to work for another. It’s really up to that player.”

However, professionals agree that there are several time-tested techniques that are common among most competent golfers.

Most being the key word.

According to traditional thought, the grip, as well as the golfer’s positioning in relation to the ball, is the basis for an effective swing. The way in which a golfer sets up to the ball determines the shot’s accuracy and distance of the shot.

Dan Steen, who has been the director of golf instruction at Lake Erie Golf Range for the last 15 years, said he’s a firm believer that the grip dictates the rest of the swing.

“The grip is the most important part of any swing, and from there, the stance, posture and ball position will rely on that,” said Steen, who serves as coach for the Mercyhurst College women’s and Villa Maria Academy girls’ golf teams.

Paris, who served as an instructor at the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy in Orlando, Fla., from 2003 to 2005, concurred with Steen, and said he has The King to back him up.

“When I worked down in Florida, we tried to use the way Arnold Palmer played as a model, and utilized the principles he learned in his experience,” Paris said. “So, the most important things as soon as you look at a swing are the grip, stance and posture.

“If those three things come together, it’s a solid golfer. First and foremost, these are the most important.”

Many of the same principles used by legends like Palmer can still be seen on the PGA Tour today.

“We use a stronger grip,” Paris said. “You’re in an athletic stance with your knees bent, but not quite on your toes, but more on the balls of your feet, just so you can make a solid move downward on the ball.”

Palmer’s grip, in which he held his hands slightly to the right on the club, isn’t the only example of a revolutionary technique popularized by a golf immortal.

Ben Hogan, who is regarded as one of the game’s greatest ball-strikers, is widely credited with introducing and perfecting the one-plane golf swing, which has become increasingly prevalent among golfers and instructors in recent years.

Under the one-plane system, golfers use a similar plane on the downswing as they do on the backswing.

The swing attempts to generate torque by rotating the golfer’s shoulders and upper body around a significantly bent-over stance.

The one-plane swing also utilizes a strong to neutral grip in an effort to minimize swaying in the hands and allow the natural movement of the swing to guide the club face.

Steen said the one-plane swing has come into vogue mostly due to its practicality.

“The more modern swings are generally a little flatter, and try to swing around, whereas the old-fashioned swing is a more up-and-down approach,” Steen said. “Guys like Rory McIlroy and Matt Kuchar tend to swing on an even plane, and hit through the ball.”

“I’d rather have a player with their hands go around their body. It’s more the fact that you want to hit to a target somewhere, so you should probably keep your swing more circular more so than a two-plane swing.”

The two-plane technique primarily depends on timing and rhythm, as the swing will come down on an inside plane, and rely on the rotation of the hands and arms to move the ball from left to right. This swing is largely reliant on leverage created by the downward action.

Tom Watson and Jim Furyk are among the dying breed of Tour professionals who still use a two-plane swing.

But the nuances don’t stop there.

In recent years, an increasing number of exotic swings have sent conventional thinking into the rough.

The most notable of these is undoubtedly the stack-and-tilt method.

The stack-and-tilt is based on a geometrical swing that attempts to make optimum contact off the club’s face. The swing deemphasizes the grip and set-up, but instead focuses on a circular, free-wheeling swing.

Still, even with the wide range of swings out there, most pros and instructors tinker with a variety of techniques before forming their own personal philosophy.

Paris maintains a pragmatic approach.

“The swing that I try to teach is a compact swing,” Paris said. “I try to teach a very concise and consistent approach. There is very little movement in the swing, because the more movement, the more room for error.

“It opens up a whole can of worms when you throw in those extra moving parts, so if you are able to minimize them, it makes for a more consistent swing.”

However, most instructors will agree one swing does not fit all.

“As far as teaching a certain way, I don’t try to make every golfer into the same player,” Steen said. “I have some golfers that are physically handicapped, and some with bad backs, and they can’t do the same things in a swing other golfers can. I have one golfer who only has two fingers on his hands, so we have to use a cross-handed grip.

“Each golfer is different. What I try to do is to get every golfer to release the club in their swing. It’s just like throwing a baseball—for everyone, the golf club has to be released.”

For women, a wider stance and taller spine angle can increase power, according to Gannon sophomore Bhanisha Nagindas.

“My mentor back in Canada is always saying that our swings are different,” the Ontario native said. “She says that we have a different stance to get as much length as possible.”

Whether they have different planes, release points and shoulder turns, all swings actually do have one thing in common: a golfer making them.

Willow, who is the owner and operator of Competitive Edge Performance Systems, which offers performance enhancement through mental training, examines the psychological aspect of the game in an effort to bridge the technical and mental sides.

“The one thing with golf is that a ball is going to go a certain way because of some reason,” Willow, who is also the director of sport and exercise science at Gannon, said. “It’s very consistent in that there’s a reason why it’s all of a sudden doing a certain thing.”

For a struggling golfer, all the swing training in the world can get thrown by the wayside on the course.

However, thinking too much on the course can be a greater hazard than the water on 17 at TPC Sawgrass.

“When you get more experience, you realize how much of the game is mental,” Gannon senior golfer Dom Lombardi said. “A lot of times you think you have it figured out, and that’s just not the reality.

“The worst thing that can happen is for you to think about it too much during a round. You love to stay away from it, but sometimes you have to if you’re slicing your driver, or you’re chunking your wedges. You have to make some kind of change.”

Willow agreed that on-the-course adjustments could spell trouble.

“Whenever my girls are warming up on the range before a tournament, and they are slicing it or hooking it, I tell them ‘play that way on the course until it goes away.’

“What I don’t do is try to change a swing in the middle of a round. You want to get it to a point where you can use your body, and take the brain out of it as much as possible.”

But for guidance to fall back on while shooting out the bunker or facing a 15-footer for par, any golfer will tell you that conferring with a swing coach is one of the first steps toward success on the course.

“If you’re learning to play golf, you should really get some coaching just to make sure you’re on the right track,” Lombardi said. “Even if you’ve been playing for a while, and you’ve got a pretty good grasp, it really helps to have some input from the outside.”

However, instructors will agree that most important is an emphasis on a fundamental aspect of the game: progress.

“Our goal on the second day is always to be better than we were the day before,” Willow said. “In fact, we have cheers sometimes that we do before a tournament, where we just chant ‘Be better.’”

Nagindas, who placed second in last weekend’s Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s women’s golf championships, said the positive thinking is a reason for the team’s success.

“When you have a round behind you, it’s always important to just get better the next day,” she said.

JOE CUNEO

cuneo001@knights.gannon.edu

Five Knights shot a cumulative 649 in the two-day tournament at the par-72 Hershey Links Golf Club. Gannon finished just eight strokes behind PSAC champion California (Pa.) University.

The Knights were fueled by three top-five finishes, as Kelly Nickerson and Amanda Teodorsson joined Nagindas at the top, earning third-and-fourth place finishes respectively.

Meanwhile, the Gannon men struggled in Hershey, finishing in last place among seven while recording a team total of 651. Indiana (Pa.) University took its fourth consecutive men’s title, recording a 592 while the Crimson Hawks’ Sean Sweithelm was crowned individual champ after shooting a two-day score of one-over-par 145.

Senior Drew Deimel did provide a bright spot for the Knights, recording a two-day score of 149 to claim a share of fourth place.

The finish tied Deimel’s career best at the PSACs and managed to impress the men’s interim coach Jason Willow.

“Drew is an excellent ball striker and a very smart player,” Willow said.  “He had one poor swing on Saturday which cost him two strokes and the round one lead.”

After shooting 328 on day one, the women’s team held a share of the lead with Cal.

However on the second day, Gannon had to deal with a stiff wind and battled its way through the opening holes before regaining its swagger,  Jason Willow said.

“The women battled extremely harsh conditions on Saturday and distanced themselves from everyone but California,” Willow said. “On Sunday, difficulty on the greens on the first six holes put our girls behind early, but improved play brought us back into contention on the back nine.”

One of the golfers who got off to a rough start Sunday was Teodorsson, whose 80 on day one tied her with West Chester’s Ann Bahnick for the lead.

“On the second day, it was very windy, Teodorsson said. “I hit the ball very well but wasn’t sinking any putts.”

“Bhanisha was handling the wind very well and was sinking her putts,” she said of Nagindas, who shot a 77 on Sunday as part of a 15-over 159.

The Brampton, Ontario, import was the leader in the clubhouse until Cal’s Jenna Rothermel birdied the final hole to best Nagindas by one stroke in the penultimate grouping.

Kierston Klekner-Alt and Rhiannon Ray shot 168 and 171 and finished in ties for 10th and 12th place, respectively, rounding out the Gannon starting five.

It was an impressive showing for the women, considering their youth and inexperience.

However, Willow said he sees room for improvement.

“While it is our highest finish ever at the conference championship meet, none of our players were pleased with the outcome,” Willow said.

“Battling back the way that they did on the back nine only made the team hungrier for future successes not only at the conference level but on the national stage.”

JOE CUNEO

cuneo001@gannon.edu

(Gannonsports.com) Freshman golfer Amanda Teodorrson

Freshman Amanda Teodorrson has made a name for herself on the women’s golf team in just her first month of collegiate competition and is beginning to adapt to the American way of life.

“It has been great here and everyone has been very kind to me,” said Teodorrson, who came from Savedalen, Sweden, to Gannon as a freshman this fall and has enjoyed great success on the golf course.

Teodorrson has netted top-10 finishes in each of the four tournaments the Knights have participated in. She is also part of a class currently ranked as the No.1 freshman class by the NCAA’s primary golf statistics service, golfstat.com.

During her short time here, Teodorrson has managed to catch the eye of coach Jason Willow.

“She’s experienced tremendous success so far,” Willow said. “She has a tremendous work ethic and truly embodies her role as student-athlete.”

Teodorrson achieved this despite a rigorous academic schedule that denies her the opportunity to practice with the team on a regular basis.

“I don’t have a lot of time to practice,” Teodorrson said. “The team usually practices between 4 and 7 p.m. and that is when my ESL [English as Second Language] class is. I played nine holes with a teammate on Saturday, but before that I hadn’t played a practice round in probably two weeks.”

Teodorrson first got in contact with Gannon coaches through an international recruiting website, the same website that brought men’s golfer Niclas Nyqvist from Sweden to Gannon.

To qualify for education in the U.S., however, Teodorrson had to complete the Test of English as a Foreign Language in addition to the SAT, ensuring that she was proficient enough in English.

Learning the subtleties and nuances of the English language has been the most difficult part of the American experience said Teodorrson, who grew up speaking primarily Swedish and knew English only as a school subject.

“It’s harder to speak and understand someone than it is to read,” she said. “There are some words in America that mean different things than they do anywhere else.”

The freshman has also had the benefit of a familiar support system by her side. Teodorrson rooms with freshman soccer player Charlotte Bergstrom, whom she met via Facebook and hails from nearby Gothenburg, Sweden.

To fully immerse Teodorrson into her surroundings, however, teammates have been there every step of the way.

“We hang out a lot together,” said sophomore teammate Rhiannon Ray.  “We all help her with her speech and go shopping together.  She’s our friend and it’s something we like to do together.”

Some things are still too much to ask of Teodorrson, whose imported tastes baffle teammates during road trips.

“She doesn’t like cheese,” Ray said. “There are just some things that are foreign to her. When we’re at a restaurant and something comes to the table, she says ‘there’s too much cheese on that.’”

Teodorrson’s personality has rubbed off on teammates, allowing the Knights to reach heights never before seen by the current team, Willow said.

“She’s an excellent teammate and is well liked by the other girls,” Willow said. “She, along with her teammates, has helped to instill an intoxicating work ethic on the team that has each of our nine players continuously striving to better their games.”    

Ray went even further about how close Teodorrson has become to the team.

“I feel that with Amanda on the team,” she said, “we are more of a family than we were last year.”

JOE CUNEO

cuneo001@gannon.edu