Photo Courtesy: FAMU Athletics
The Florida A&M golf team, who secured their first HBCU national championship this past summer was back in action last week in Maryland at the Howard/San Francisco Intercollegiate tournament.
The tournament would feature a top five finisher in last year’s National Championship, Taylor Bell. The team would go on to finish eight out of twelve schools.
This season’s roster looks a little different. Key pieces from the Rattler’s championship squad, like Marcus Taylor, are gone. In fact, four out of the top five finishers for FAMU aren’t on the roster.
Taylor who dominated the entire championship with a double bogey in 218 strokes.
Bell the only remaining top five finisher in the HBCU National Championship spoke about the team getting back on the course for the first time following the end of a successful season.
“It feels great to get back out on the course,” Bell said. “I feel that the team has put in a lot of work this offseason to be primed for another championship run.”
Bell says that despite the doubt surrounding FAMU going into this season, the team is filled with great newcomers who are ready for the season.
“A little question mark coming into the season, as we only had one returning starter coming back from the championship team, myself,” Bell said. “But Coach rice has done an excellent job in bringing in talent to fill out the roster, including five freshman and one transfer. After playing in that first event, I feel we have a roster to win a SWAC and National Championship.”
Bell, who birdied in the season opener, finished in a tie for sixth place. Bell says he is not satisfied, despite believing his performance was good.
“I would like to improve my bunker game and would like to hit a few more fairways going forward,” Bell says.
Despite the Rattlers finishing eighth overall in the entire tournament, they finished first amongst the other HBCU’s, including fellow SWAC rivals Alabama State and Prairie View A&M.
Bell says that competing and winning against other HBCU’s in non-conference tournaments is important as the season progresses.
“Yes, we as a team want to beat other HBCU’s when we play against them,” Bell said. “Because we know that is who we are going to beat at the end of the season.”