Apoznanski put NYU women's golf on the course

Theresa Apoznanski knew better than anyone what an achievement it was that the NYU women's golf team won the ECAC Division II/III championship last weekend. She knew it not just because she is the team captain and top player.

The senior from Nesconset knew it because, as she said on the team's way home from Rochester, N.Y., "This team started a little differently than most athletic programs do."

NYU women's golf was established, basically, because Apoznanski established it. She was a standout golfer at Smithtown West who eschewed major college golf because she wanted to study pre-med at NYU. So when she was still in high school and still playing and practicing at Smithtown Landing Country Club, she asked officials at the university in Manhattan if they would be interested in starting a women's team.

Administrators agreed, mindful that the campus in Greenwich Village is not quite synonymous with golf.

"We don't have a course right outside our front door," said Todd Kolean, coach of the men's and women's teams since 2009. He added that for practice every Tuesday and Thursday, the women's team gathers on campus at noon, rides in a bus for more than an hour to Spook Rock Country Club in Rockland County, and doesn't get back until 8 at night.

In the fall of Apoznanski's freshman year, the team didn't have enough golfers to compete in matches. By the spring it had a roster, but many of its members were just recreational golfers who rarely broke 100.

Now, though, it is a bona fide squad, mostly through the efforts of the senior who kept spreading the word, fanning enthusiasm and attending to details, right down to finding the purple and black golf shoes that are part of the uniform. "We had our ups and downs," Apoznanski said. "It took a lot of patience."

Patience gave way to pride this month. A week before the ECAC triumph, Apoznanski won the individual title at the Martin/Wallace Invitational in Cortland. NYU finished second in the team scoring to Methodist, first in the nation among small colleges in the golfstat.com rankings. The ECAC tournament was Apoznanski's high point, even though she had two rounds in the 80s and finished third individually.

"I don't expect it to be this way forever, but right now, she is NYU women's golf," Kolean said. "She is the face of the team."

Assistant coach Matt Huck, who also is NYU's business manager, said, "She helped start this program and you can see what an impact she has made. In 3½ years, it's a competitive team now. And she is nothing but the perfect student- athlete."

Apoznanski's grade point average is better than 3.5, her golf average is in the mid- to high-70s. The latter might have been lower if she had spent more time practicing last summer, but she was busy with a genetics research project. When acquaintances talk about her drive, it is her studying, not her length off the tee.

She brings her books on the bus. She says that after practice or a match, "I'll go in a conference room with a cup of coffee, flip on the lights and sit down for a couple of hours."

She added that she appreciates that the coaches took on extra responsibilities when the women's team started. "They spend a lot of time away from their families," she said.

The spring season probably will be her farewell to competitive golf, at least for a few years. Amateur tournaments and coaching interest her, but those will have to wait until after med school. Apoznanski will pursue either pediatrics, in which she has done some student volunteer work, or sports medicine, coming off a college athletic career that will leave a legacy.

"It's amazing. I call it my baby," she said. "I think it defines my time at NYU."