Nov. 19, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Willie Park Jr. will be posthumously inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2013. Joining his father Willie Park Sr. in the Hall of Fame, Park Jr. made unparalleled contributions to the game of golf as a player, architect, and innovator. The Induction Ceremony will take place on Monday, May 6, 2013 at World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fl. and will kick off THE PLAYERS Championship Week.
Willie Park Jr. designed or modified over 200 courses in Europe, the U.S., and Canada. The Pennsylvania State University golf facilities were fortunate enough to be included in his impressive contributions, as Park Jr. came to campus in 1922 to help design the original Penn State golf course. The remnants of his architecture are now found in holes 6-14 on the Penn State White Course.
While the Nittany Lion golf facilities have undergone a number of renovations in the past century, the course has maintained the groundwork of Park Jr.'s designs, featuring unique bunkering and green complexes. His contributions to Penn State golf have made the White Course holes some of the best and most impressive attributes of the campus' golf amenities.
Penn State is now home to a championship layout Blue Course and a second White Course designed in part by a Word Golf Hall of Famer. Willie Park Jr.'s original course designed for the Nittany Lions holds incredible history, as Arnold Palmer won the PIAA Championship on these very holes in University Park, Pa. when he was in high school in the late 1940's.
The historical significance of Willie Park Jr.'s White Course designs, in addition to the championship layout of the Blue Course, make Penn State's golf facilities some of the most impressive in the country.
The Nittany Lion men's and women's golf teams practice and play on the Penn State Golf Courses daily. The two squads have had successful fall seasons and hope to carry that momentum into the spring portion of their schedules.
On the men's side, there were a handful of standouts for the Penn State golf squad. Sophomore Jens Talbert (Little Rock, Ark.) competed in 14 rounds of golf through five tournaments. Talbert averaged an outstanding team-low 73.36 score, while finishing in the top-20 in four out of five of the team's fall competitions. He shot low-rounds of 69 in both the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate and the Georgetown Intercollegiate, where a 216 three round tally earned Talbert's best finish of the season in the latter. Saving the best for last, he earned a tied-for-eighth place ranking among 66 individuals in Penn State's final fall tournament.
Senior Jay Woodward (Bridgeport, W. Va.) finished with the Nittany Lions' second-best average of 74.27 in the fall after 15 rounds. Woodward made his best finish in the first tournament of the 2012-13 campaign, the Gopher Invitational, with a tied-for-19th place standing out of 75 participants. Alongside Woodward was another senior leader that led the way for the Penn State men's golf team. Anthony DeGol (Hollidaysburg, Pa.) averaged a 74.50 in four competitions for the Nittany Lions. DeGol's best performance of the fall came at the Cobra-PUMA Invitational, where he shot a season-low 211 in three rounds and finished eighth out of 75 individuals.
For the Nittany Lion women, the team earned two tournament titles and two other top five finishes. Penn State shot the lowest combined score in school history at its own Nittany Lion Invitational to win the crown. Junior Ellen Ceresko (Jefferson Township, Pa.) won the individual portion. The Nittany Lions went on to win the Mercedes Benz Intercollegiate, and also finish second in the Yale Intercollegiate and fifth at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.
The women's golf team was honored as the Golfweek Team of the Week on Oct. 15. In addition, Ceresko and junior Christina Vosters (Bethany Beach, Del.) earned Big Ten Golfer of the Week awards. Vosters is averaging a team-best 72.60 after the five fall tournaments, while Ceresko is averaging a 72.79.