April 21, 2008

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (UWIRE) --

This weekend, the Rutherford Intercollegiate tournament allowed Penn State golfers to start their collegiate careers.

Unfortunately for them, it came at the expense of shortening them.

The participation of freshmen Brenden Borst and Jason Cohan, who both played solely in individual competition, cost both players the possibility of a fifth year of eligibility.

Neither of the players had competed in a collegiate golf tournament before this weekend so their redshirt eligibility was still intact by teeing off on Saturday, both are now limited to four years of golf at Penn State.

"It's amazing that one tournament can effect the entire career of a golfer," coach Greg Nye said. "And it can be a toss up making that decision because no one knows what kind of development a player will have in four years as opposed to five."

Both Borst and Cohan said they consulted Nye as well as their families to make their decision. The choice is essentially left up to the player but under heavy guidance and consideration from the coaching staff.

While both players started their careers in the Rutherford, Borst said his decision wasn't motivated by golf, but because he wanted to finish school in four years and get into the working world.

"When I talked about it with my family, my parents basically told me they weren't going to pay for five years of school," he said.

Cohan said his decision came down to getting out of Pennsylvania as soon as possible. He is weighing the possibly of playing professional golf after graduation, and a fifth year in the harsh golfing environment of the North could hold his development back. Once he gets his degree, he plans on continuing golf in Florida.

Now that Cohan and Borst have officially competed, Tommy McDonagh is the only remaining freshman on the team that still has a fifth year of eligibility. To make his decision of whether or not he would take away his red shirt, he consulted senior Robert Rohanna. Rohanna suggested sitting out his freshman year, including the Rutherford Intercollegiate, to get more practice and feel for college golf.

Rohanna himself had opted to forgo his red shirt season and start playing as soon as he came to Penn State four years ago. He said he regretted not redshirting, but it ended up being a good decision.

"It gave me such an advantage to get into the game as quickly as possible," Rohanna said. "It's a give and take decision but I think it was the basis for my successful golf career at Penn State."

(C) 2008 Daily Collegian via UWIRE