We recently spoke with Wesleyan’s Golf captain Dave Velardo ’09, who set Weleyan’s single round record earlier this spring, when he shot a 68.

ARGUS SPORTS STAFF: When did you start playing golf?

DAVE VELARDO: Nine years old with my mom, dad, and two brothers.

ASS: How long after you started did it click and you realized how good you could be?

DV: I’ve seen myself as a decent player since I started playing junior tournaments in my early teens. I feel like my potential has grown much more over the past year than ever before, even though I haven’t made a huge improvement in performance.

ASS: What is the coolest/most interesting course that you’ve played?

DV: Myopia Hunt Club. It’s an old, links style golf course that doesn’t get much play. It hosted an early 20th century U.S. Open. You can be out there hacking away in the long fescue grass and not see another group in any direction. Around the greens is the challenge: once on the fourth hole in a match I hit my second shot onto the green but played my fourth shot from the front bunker.

ASS: Is there any music that you listen to before a round to get you pumped up or focused?

DV: My high school team listened to Disturbed’s “Down With the Sickness” before each match because it was in a Tiger Woods commercial, then we played Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” when we won, which was often. Almost all my teammates play in college and two are very competitive Division I players. One of them being my younger brother and, yeah, he’s better than me.

ASS: What professional athlete do you admire most and why?

DV: I respect all athletes who are revered as the best all-time in their sport. Tiger Woods continues to dominate. He’s on his way to surpass Jack Nicklaus as the best golfer of all time. While doing this, he has helped and inspired others, and I admire him for this. But I admire most the non-athletes who make it their primary goal to help and inspire others.

ASS: If you could give one piece of advice to an amateur golfer, what would it be?

DV: Lose your attachment to the outcome of a shot and the shot will be at least very good. My brother says, though, that this is almost impossible. So my second piece of advice is that body awareness is an essential ingredient to playing well. If you can really feel your arms and hands well on the putting green, for example, you will putt much better. To raise your arm and hand awareness, try taking practice strokes very slowly or very quickly and feel the arms and hands moving, or try patting or rubbing your arms and hands.

ASS: How does it feel to hold the Wesleyan all-time record for lowest round shot?

DV: I try to distance myself from what I do but I definitely appreciate the boost it gives me.