This past weekend, the Pitt Club Golf team qualified for the NCCGA National Championship for the fourth straight time.
Though an impressive feat in its own right, a group of team members have also been busy having success off the course.
Five players, all of which are part of the roster that Pitt will bring to Dancing Rabbit, have continued their #JourneyToBetter in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and are only beginning to make their marks in their respective fields.
Junior Mark Bondi, Atlantic regional tournament no. 1 Medalist, has been specializing in mechanical engineering and just recently finished a summer work opportunity with Bayer. During his time at Bayer, Bondi assisted a product development team to improve and design products made from Bayer plastics and polycarbonates.
Bondi said playing club golf has allowed him to continue pursuing his lofty career goals in the field of mechanical engineering.
“The demands of club golf have given me a great opportunity to really go after positions in my field that have appealed to me,” Bondi said. “It has also helped me release some stress on the weekends where we can get away from the books for a few hours.”
In 2014, US News and World Report ranked Pitt’s engineering program no. 49 in the nation.
Senior Peter Hoffmann, who is set to graduate this December, has already done multiple terms as a process and product engineer at ATI Allegheny Ludlum. There, Hoffmann was run through all the drills of what a chemical engineer does and he said that the co-op allowed him to hone his career goals and prepare for entering the workforce.
Sounds like those who can engineer products can engineer a golf swing too, huh?
How is your team doing in the #ClubGolf race?
Juniors Matt Pulleo and Spencer Kuhn are two more Pitt golfers who also are getting outside experience in their respective fields while excelling on the golf course.
Pulleo, currently on engineering co-op with Air Products and Chemicals in Allentown, Pennsylvania, has completed service projects and gives tours in addition to his outside work.
Kuhn, the Medalist at Atlantic regional tournament no. 2, has had maybe the coolest experience of all. His role in the Chemical Engineers Car Club has complemented his superb play on the course. The "Chem-E" club will compete in competition this spring using a car they manufactured that runs completely on chemical processes. Kuhn is looking to have another stellar showing at Nationals after finishing in second place at Crystal Springs.
The last Pitt engineer we highlight today is senior Brett Vuxta. The industrial engineer co-ops with Curtiss-Wright EMD and led a $104,000 renovation project while creating multiple databases for project files storage.
The group of engineers has had a pretty solid semester on the course, too – the five have combined for 14 rounds in the 70s in 20 regional tournament rounds.
They’ll look to continue their #JourneyToBetter at Dancing Rabbit in less than a month!
***Dave Uhrmacher (@DaveUhrm) is the NCCGA Director of Communications.
