The 2023 Mountain State Golf Classic will definitely have a collegiate feel this year including four players from WVU Tech.
Current Golden Bear golfers Bryson Beaver, Nathan Daniels, Rob Akerman and Christian Ward will all represent the Golden Bears when the three-day tournament tees off Saturday at Grandview Country Club.
“We definitely want to see them do these type of events during the summer because it gives them experience,” WVU Tech head golf coach Garrett Goosman said. “It also helps when they play together because it builds comradery since you are depending on your teammates during the regular golf season.”
Beaver will be a sophomore this fall and has garnered the most success of the Tech foursome.
As a senior at Herbert Hoover High School in the fall of 2021 he won the individual Class AA state title and helped lead the Huskies to the team championship that year as well.
The following summer after graduation, the former Husky captured the 2022 W.Va. Junior Amateur crown and was the only player to shoot under par for the two-day event.
Success on the state level is also part of his golfing resume’. The last two years, Beaver has teamed with good friend and former Shady Spring standout, Tanner Vest, to win the W.V. Four-Ball championship. The two young phenoms are the youngest duo to accomplish that feat.
“Bryson is real hard on himself when he is not playing well. Even when he does play well, he feels like he could have played better,” Goosman said. “He really pushes himself to the next level, which is good.”
Beaver is also off to a solid start in college with three second place finishes last season. The rising sophomore narrowly missed wins at the Golden Bear Classic on the Cobb Course at Glade Springs Resort and the Roger Merb Invitation at Shawnee State University. He was also runner up at the River States Conference Fall Preview.
“His first year has went really well. Bryson has really high expectations for himself and feels like he should win every tournament,” Goosman said. “If you ask him, he might say he fell short of his expectations, but if you ask anyone else, including myself, we would say he had a really good year. He had solid performances throughout the year.”
Akerman will be entering his junior year at Tech in the fall and his journey to Beckley originated in Cape Town, South Africa.
During the time in his homeland, Akerman played a variety of sports like golf, cricket, hockey, tennis, squash, track and cycling.
Golf, and of course, the strong engineering program at WVU Tech, brought Akerman to Beckley after battling some passport issues due to the COVID restraints.
“He has done a lot of different things. When he came here he said you don’t have cricket or squash or anything like that? He even talked about rugby,” Goosman said, laughing. “I had to tell most of those are not really very popular here. For the most part though, he enjoys playing golf and getting his education.”
Coming to Tech not only gave Akerman a good educational opportunity, it also provided him the chance to play college golf.
“In South Africa and Europe they have colleges, but they don’t have collegiate athletics. They can play individually in tournaments, but obviously they have to pay there own way,” Goosman explained. “Then there is travel and other factors. While in college there, they have to keep up with their classes, so they don’t have the opportunity to play except on weekends and during the summertime mostly. Playing here is an opportunity for them to play at the next level (year round).”
Daniels and Ward are no stranger to the Mountain State Golf Classic and both come from a family of golfers.
Ward graduated from Woodrow Wilson in 2020 where he earned a varsity letter. His dad Chris Ward and grandfather Bill Ward were professional golfers at one time. Bill Ward won the initial tournament back in 1980.
Chris Daniels is the father of Nathan and has been an accomplished amateur player his entire career. The elder Daniels also was a key player on the 1990 Woodrow Wilson state champion basketball squad under legendary head coach Dave Barksdale.
Nathan played golf for Shady Spring and helped lead the Tigers to the state tournament his senior year.
Both youngsters will not only be vying for a championship this year, both will be looking for some family bragging rights after the “old” guys got the best of them last year.
Chris Ward was the 3rd Flight champion last year, while Christian tied for sixth in the same flight. The Daniels two-some both made the championship flight where Chris took the honors and finished the tournament in third-place.
Round two will be played at Pipestem State Park Sunday before the championship round Monday moves to the Cobb Course at Glade Springs Resort.
