By Darin David, NAIA

TULSA, Okla. - First-year head coach David Goddard of Berry College (Ga.) experienced all the highs and lows and anxiety that the 1998 NAIA Men's Golf National Championships can offer as the final groups came off the course at renowned Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa from May 19-22. His team had led through the first two rounds of the tournament, but landed in a tie with Texas Wesleyan University entering the final day. Since he spent most of the day on the course with his golfers, Goddard was unsure about where Berry stood as were many others.

"I heard one of the assistant pros talking about how to set up a playoff so I thought we were tied then Terry Hopper (University of Mobile (Ala.)) said 'Congratulations, you won by one stroke'," Goddard relates. "Then John Sadie (Huntingdon College (Ala.)) said, 'I think you're tied.' It was a new experience for me and I was so wound up that I couldn't think. When I saw them write 'Berry 302' and 'Texas Wesleyan 303', I could relax a little bit."

At the same time that Berry was edging out TWU for the team title, TWU's Chris Gaines was putting the finishing touches on a final round 76 for a four-round total of 294. He earned medalist honors with a three-stroke edge over Berry's Mike Howren, who recorded a 78 on the last day.

This was the first national championship for the Berry golfers, who were runners-up twice in the previous four years. Goddard was promoted from assistant coach in January to oversee a fivesome that had all participated in a national championship or traveled as an alternate. That served Berry well.

"One thing I did different this year after our conference tournament was to prepare them differently," Goddard says. "Instead of drills, I kept them playing competitively by setting up matches with people in local clubs. I tried to keep their competitive spirit. Maybe it worked.

"Or maybe it was their experience. All the guys had been there before. They all were nervous so knowing what to expect helped a lot. Playing all spring with the same five guys made them very confident with each other."

In the end, it wasn't the play of Berry's top three players, Howren, John Thomas Horton (T6) and Paul Johnson (14) that separated the Vikings. After all, TWU accounted for three of the top five individuals. It was the fourth and fifth golfers, Matt Evans and Rusty Estes who contributed rounds of 78, 77, 76 and 78 throughout the tournament to raise Berry.

Before winning his first tournament of the year, Gaines had earned a distinction that propelled him to the title. When the All-America Scholar-Athlete list was released, he discovered that he registered the highest GPA in NAIA men's golf at 3.96.

"We talked a little bit about that because in 1990, we had a player on our team (Andy Fuller) who received that recognition as well and was an economics and finance major like Chris," Head Coach Bobby Cornett notes. "Andy had the highest GPA in the nation and won the tournament as well. I think that was additional motivation for Chris.

"I think it was the fact that he was at the national tournament, playing such a tremendous golf course and it was the last tournament of the season. All this helped him to narrow his focus down and not let other things distract him."
Gaines put a lot more pressure on himself before receiving his first "B" during the last academic year. Cornett believes that Gaines' concern over maintaining his 4.0 GPA and his tendency to over-think on the golf course held him back before the national championships.

"He looks too far down the line instead of staying in the present, and that's one thing he managed really well in this tournament," Cornett explains. "In the last round, he only hit three greens and cold-shanked two shots. To shoot 76 when hitting that poorly shows his mental toughness to grind it out."

Gaines wasn't alone in his determination to navigate the highly acclaimed course at Southern Hills, which has hosted both the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open in the past. Everyone in the field was tested, including the victorious Berry team.
"The course was awesome, and when we were leaving, I asked my team to look at it one more time because they may never get a chance to play it again," Goddard realizes. "They said they had had enough. It was a challenge."

1998 NAIA Men's Golf Championship Results
Team Results

Team	Score
1. Berry (Ga.)	1196
2. Texas Wesleyan	1197
3. Huntingdon (Ala.)	1207
4. Texas Lutheran	1218
5. Southwestern Oklahoma	1225
6. Oklahoma City	1229
7. East Central (Okla.)	1236
8. Western Wash.	1241
9. Spring Hill (Ala.)	1242
10. Union (Tenn.)	1243
11. Bluefield (Va.)	1248
12. Southern Nazarene (Okla.)	1250
13. Oklahoma Christian	1262
13. Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.)	1262
13. St. Ambrose Univ. (Iowa)	1262
16. Northwood (Texas)	1266
17. St. Thomas (Fla.)	1267
18. North Greenville (S.C.)	1270

Individual Results (All-American Honors)
Par for the Southern Hills Country Club course was 70.

Player	School	Rounds	Total
Chris Gaines	Texas Wesleyan	76-71-71-76	294
Mike Howren	Berry (Ga.)	72-73-74-78	297
Jamie Jones	Huntingdon (Ala.)	75-72-78-73	298
Richard Romskil	Texas Wesleyan	75-75-74-75	299
David West	Texas Wesleyan	76-73-75-75	299
John Thomas Horton	Berry (Ga.)	75-70-81-74	300
Mike Meade	Bluefield (Va.)	72-78-75-75	300
Bill Olson	St. Ambrose (Iowa)	74-75-75-76	300
Mickey Wolfe	Union (Tenn.)	79-72-71-78	300
Russell Huff	East Central (Okla.)	76-74-76-75	301
Phil Schmidt	Texas Lutheran	71-72-80-78	301
John McLellan	Spring Hill (Ala.)	76-73-72-80	301
Brad Stearns	Northwood (Texas)	75-72-83-81	301
Paul Johnson	Berry (Ga.)	72-82-76-72	302
Russell Smith	Southwestern Oklahoma	76-76-77-74	303
Brian Dishman	Texas Lutheran	76-77-75-75	303
Jason Wood	Southern Nazarene (Okla.)	74-76-77-76	303
Joel Skarbo	Western Washington	77-73-75-78	303