In his three years golfing at Lakeland, Gary Petit has solidified himself as one of the Northern Athletic Conference’s (NAC) most consistent golfers by being named all-conference every year as one of the conference’s ten lowest-scoring players.
Petit, a junior accounting major and sports and resort management minor, recorded his fourth top 20 finish of the fall last weekend at the NAC Championships at Whistling Straits, finishing tied for third with a two-day score of 154.
Petit impressed men’s golf coach Tyler Bormann this season, who said that for Petit “the sky’s the limit” within the NAC conference.
“He has played with more consistency this year,” said Bormann. “He’s really matured mentally. He’s always been a skilled player, but now he approaches every tournament knowing he can win.
“That confidence, along with the ability to make the shots he needs to, is helping him put together a solid season. I’m really impressed with how much better he’s been mentally and how he approaches each match.”
Petit’s ability to “make the shots he needs to” seems to have improved as the season progressed.
In the first tournament of the season on Sept. 3-4 at Edgewood, Petit finished well outside of the top 20 with a 163 two-day total, nine shots above MSOE’s Dave Zachman and Peter Eich. Only a week later, Petit ripped a 152 in his first place finish at the Marian Invite, eight and 12 shots below Zachman and Eich, respectively.
Petit attributed some of his success in the past three seasons to a family friend and club professional who tells him what to work on. Petit said at practice, he warms up for 45 minutes, going from the putting green to the driving range and back to the putting green, and then plays 18 holes.
Petit credited his teammates with improving his game, specifically the players who have golfed on Lakeland’s team with him since his freshman year, juniors Ben Laubusch and Brian Balistierri.
“We’ve all improved tremendously since our freshman year. Most of the team this year is pretty young, but our class—Ben, Brian, and I—have helped each others’ games. Brian helped me with my short game. We give each other pointers all the time,” Petit said.
Petit said the extensive amount of time required to excel as a golfer has been challenging – golfing 18 holes can take five hours.
“Managing time between school and golf and finding time to get your academics done can be hard. You can’t play golf at night, so you have to do your homework at night,” he said.
Each NAC team’s score from the conference tournament in fall will be added to the score of the spring conference tournament, with the lowest-scoring team in the combined events getting an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Petit talked about his accomplishments this season and said one of his goals is for the Muskies to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
“It is not easy to make all-conference three consecutive years. The competition in our conference only gets better, so as a golfer I need to get better also. So each year I am trying to practice more and more and try and improve certain aspects of my golf game and physique. But I am happy and pleased the way I played this year, and how consistent I was in every tournament I played in,” he said.