The Spire

Aiden Konold ’26

Sports Editor

The Holy Cross men’s golf team resumed its season this past weekend at the Savannah Intercollegiate Golf Tournament at The Club at Savannah Harbor in Savannah, GA. The Crusaders placed eleventh of thirteen teams, though the expectation remains a Patriot League title. 

“They may be young,” Steve Napoli, the head coach of the Holy Cross men’s and women’s golf teams, said of this year’s men’s team. “College wise, this is a group of young men that have played a lot of competitive golf.” 

Nolan Schuermann and Matt Williams, juniors and sophomores respectively, had great years last year– Nolan played in each of Holy Cross’ 27 rounds as a sophomore and placed 10th overall at the 2023 Patriot League Championship, and Matt played in 20 rounds as a freshman and led the team at last season’s Lehigh Invitational with a 14th place finish– but neither started playing competitive golf until their teenage years.

Though Nolan had played recreationally with his dad growing up, it wasn’t until the summer prior to his freshman year at St. Xavier High School In Cincinnati, OH, that he made the decision to play golf competitively. In Ohio, golf and soccer are played in the fall, and through the eighth grade, soccer was Nolan’s main sport. 

“I had to make a decision between two sports,” Nolan said. “I felt like I had a better future with golf.” 

Leading up to his freshman year of high school, Nolan played in local tournaments throughout Ohio before playing in regional tournaments all through the Midwest and as far south as Florida. 

When the high school golf season began, Nolan continued playing in local tournaments. When it ended, his summers were dominated by golf. Nolan woke up, worked out, and practiced all day throughout the summer. 

“Most of my days besides making a little money on the side, were spent golfing,” Nolan said. “Eighteen holes a day at least, and then hitting the range for a couple hours.”

Nolan couldn’t imagine college without golf. 

“[The game] just became a part of me,” Nolan said. By his senior year at St. Xavier’s, Nolan served as the golf team’s captain. In that same season, Nolan earned All-Southwest Ohio first team honors and Ohio All-State second team in lieu of leading his team to a third-place finish at the Ohio Division 1 State Championship. 

Matt, who grew up in Hingham, Mass., did not start playing golf until he was 12 years old, when his mom forced him to attend a golf camp at a nearby driving range with one of his friends. 

“[My mom] was just like, ‘Oh, you should try it out. Go with your friend,’ ” Matt recalled. “[I didn’t] want to play golf, but she was just like, ‘just go for a couple of days, try it out,’ and I fell in love with it.”

Shortly after attending camp, Matt joined Harmon Golf Club, a nine-hole course in Rockland, MA, and he played every day with six other kids his age. 

“We all went and played there every day, got there in the morning and left late at night,” Matt said. “If I didn’t have a friend group there, I wouldn’t have been as committed or come every day like I did in the beginning, but then after that, it just became fun to go there.” 

Everything turned into a competition. Matt and his friends had putt on the greens for golf balls, they played for hats on the wedge course, and they would have 36 hole tournaments on the par-three course. 

Matt played in his first tournament that fall, and shot a disappointing 120, but he was hooked. He played in as many junior tournaments as he could find time for, and he constantly worked on his ball striking. 

By his senior year of high school, Matt served as the captain of the St. Sebastian’s High School golf team. 

“I think it taught me how to really work hard and grind at the game because I got a much later start,” Matt said. “I was way behind all these other kids that were already playing tournaments since they were like five. So I really had to work at it as hard as I could every day to catch up to them.” 

Matt sent out 10 emails each night in high school, trying to get a college coach to respond and watch him play. Napoli, Holy Cross’ director of golf, came to the AJGA Killington Junior Golf Championship the summer heading into Matt’s senior year of high school. He was not there to see Matt play. As Napoli stood in the rough on the eighth hole at Green Mountain National Golf Course, the kid Napoli came to see hit a wide tee shot that took one bounce and hit Napoli in the leg. Matt happened to be playing in the same group, and he shot an opening round 69. His performance impressed Napoli. 

Shortly after the tournament, Napoli contacted Matt about visiting Holy Cross. At the time, Matt contemplated playing golf at the University of Rhode Island, but Holy Cross’ academic focus and campus convinced Matt to commit to Holy Cross the fall of his senior year. 

Matt started playing in fewer junior golf tournaments and more amateur tournaments the summer after he graduated from high school. The amateur tournaments fielded high schoolers, college golfers, and adults. 

“That prepares you for your upcoming season as a freshman [in college] because you’re playing against guys who have already graduated or they’re still college junior seniors,” Matt said.  

Matt elevated his skill set through working on his short game. “I think that’s what kind of pushed me over the edge and made me a better player,” Matt said. “The putting and chipping have come a long way and that’s kind of what helped me take a jump in recent years.”

Similar to Matt, Nolan wanted to play college golf at a strong academic school. Patriot League programs Bucknell, Lafayette, and Holy Cross each attracted Nolan, but Holy Cross struck a different cord. Nolan always had the Jesuit connection through St. Xavier. 

Coming to Holy Cross, though, was a leap of faith. Nolan talked to Coach Napoli and committed to Holy Cross without ever seeing the campus given the COVID-19 pandemic; Nolan never saw the campus until the April of his senior year in high school. 

“I was spending a lot of time preparing for that, making sure my game was in a place where I could compete coming in,” Nolan said of making the jump to college golf. “He [Napoli] made it clear that no spot would be given in the lineup.” 

Nolan finished 10th at the Bucknell Invitational to lead all Crusaders, and he led the team in scoring the fall of his freshman year, though he struggled in the spring. 

“I had to learn how to identify some roots of my golf problems and fix them a little more on my own than I was used to because at home I had a swing coach that I could go to whenever I was having issues,” Nolan said. “It was definitely a learning experience that has been invaluable for me because now I’m able to be more independent successfully though.” 

Nolan and Matt’s experiences help them relate to and lead a team of primarily underclassmen. Each of the team’s three freshmen– Alex Elia, Thomas O’Neill, and Ryan Scollins– played in a tournament last fall. 

“I’ve tried to really guide them with academics, especially if they did really well, their first semester here has been very impressive,” Nolan said, “but also in the weight room, too, I think we’ve tried to lead by example there, and I think it’s starting to pay off.” 

“I’ve tried to just make sure that the freshmen feel welcome and that they are included in everything,” Matt said. “To make sure that if they have any questions, they feel like they can come to us if they have anything they need to talk about.”

Given the Crusaders’ depth and leadership, the expectation remains a Patriot League Championship; in the Patriot League, each team starts six golfers, and the top four scores count. 

“Some schools will have two or three players who really carry them,” Napoli said. “We have depth now. Every single person on our team can break par on any given day.” 

“For us, our ticket to the NCAA is to win the Patriot League,” Napoli concluded. “We’re capable of that. This team has the talent to win.”