DWU MEN'S GOLF

Phase 1 Complete...Time for Phase 2...

Sorry that it has been so long that I have had the time to write anything new on here for you guys to read...but here are just some thoughts and input that I have about the past couple of days...

As most of you know, at least the devout followers to the DWU Tiger golf program will know, we just came off a large victory at the GPAC Conference tournament beating defending champion Nebraska Wesleyan as well as Dordt College by 11 strokes. We fired a 305 in some pretty crappy conditions and then rebounded with a 297 that was good enough to be the low for the second day in a row. That is phase 1...more about phase 2 after you keep reading...

The sad part about all of that is this...we really didn't play that well. Our 305 had to count an 80 and a 78 and for our 297, we probably still left 2-3 shots out there each. However, we have had the chance to work on our games even more to get ready for the Region tournament that is coming up here on Monday and Tuesday at the Elmwood Golf Club in Sioux Falls. Also, to add to that, Elmwood is the site where we fired our school record (289, +1 as a team!!) so we are pretty excited to get back there on a course we are familar with and have had good experiences at. Also to note, we won a tournament there in the Fall shooting a 312 which was good enough to win by 8 or 9 strokes I believe in some just nasty, awful, horrible conditions. It was a pretty wicked day, so hopefully we can build on that. I believe in my own round that was an 83, I had three triples and two doubles...so, yeah, scoring was awfully difficult , but we're ready...we're ready.

As I had mentioned before, phase 1 is complete. Our goal was to get through Conference and qualify for the regionals and not only did we do that, but we were able to WIN the conference tournament pulling off a "worst to first" scenario and get our chance to qualify for the NAIA National Tournament. We have been prearing all spring to get our chance, and we finally got it. Our competition will include the likes of Dordt College, Hastings College, Midland Lutheran College, and the University of Sioux Falls are from the GPAC (including us, your DWU Tigers!!!!) and from the North we have Dickinson State and Minot State. It's going to be a great chance for us to prove our dominance in Region 3 play and bring home the trophy and the gold medal and punch our ticket to the National tournament. With that said, we always remind ourselves that we are NOT THERE...YET. We still have a LOT of work to do to get ready for the tournament. We are going to have to play VERY well and the other teams will not roll over and play dead for us...we are going to have to buckle down and get on our A game. It's going to be tough.

So, as I had said before Conference...I will say it again...

Get prepared for something big...very big...

Wish us luck.

Preparing for the GPAC Conference Tournament

It has been a little while since I have had the chance to write here, but we really haven't been doing much in the way of golf since the recent snowfall so it has been a little difficult for me to really write about anything too productive.

We just had our tournament in Fremont, Nebraska for the Midland Lutheran Invite and I really have nothing to say about the day. We all played horrible, except for Tommy who finished in a tie for 2nd place, but he felt like he gave the tournament away, so he feels he played terrible. Now, all I can say for him is that shooting a 74 on that day, given the course, and everything else, it's a pretty good number. Coach Anderson has told us that he does not want any reflection on the round, so this is the reflection that you're going to get from me...absolutely nothing. Sorry! :-)

However, our top 5 of Tommy, Gater, Evey, Pritchy and I are spending the entire week getting ready for the Conference tournament. We are finally going to get the chance to practice outside and work on our games rather than hitting balls inside because we just got 9" of snow the day before. Today was a pretty nice day, except for the 35mph wind. We actually got to be outside and practice, see our ball fly further than length of the gym, and get some much needed practice on our short game. Fortunately for us, the weather appears to be fairly cooperative for us for the next week, so we are going to get the chance to be outside and work on everything and just PRACTICE. I don't think that you have any idea how much fun it is for me to say that, actually. Whoever gets excited about just getting the chance to practice must be crazy, but not us! We are actually going to do that. Like I have already told my parents, we are going to be an entirely different team when the conference tournament comes around because we are going to be in peak shape and condition and we're going to be just rollin'...so, all I can say is this, get prepared for something big.

Grand View College Tournament: Round 2

After having a 1 stroke lead on the first day, we were unable to hold onto that and we ended up losing the tournament by 1 stroke to the host school, Grand View. We had a bit of a struggle on the second day with all of us except Tommy and Evey shooting a higher score than our first round.

We started off the day playing in about 20* (with the wind chill) temperatures and, as I mentioned before, the wind, was blowing about 10-15 mph, pretty soft for around here, but it was bitter cold for about 13 or 14 holes of the day which made scoring pretty difficult. Tommy had the low round of the day for all competitors (I believe) with a score of 72 to shoot a two total of 148 which tied with me (who shot 75 in the second round) for 10th place. Evey was our low finisher who finished T-3rd with 146 (shooting 73 his second round) and Pritchy and Gater both fired 78 on the second day. We thought that it would be a good day considering the pins had not changed and the tee boxes had actually been moved forward on some holes, but I guess that wasn't good enough to help us out.

So, we rode the "deafeated bus" home and it took us the usual hour or so to come out of our sorry shells and start acting like our normal selves again...it's always a tough thing to endure, even when you think about it, losing by one just plain out sucks, that's all there is to it. However, we have something new to mention...WE SET A NEW SCHOOL SCORING RECORD BY SHOOTING A 591!!!!!!!!!!!! We beat our old record of 592 by ...1 stroke (how poetic!!!) One thing we are definitely noticing...IMPROVEMENT! LOTS OF IT! We are getting much better as a functioning and working unit and we can definitely start to see that the trip down to Oklahoma and Kansas is really paying off because we are starting to put together MUCH better rounds and getting respect from all over the place. We are definitely a team to be reckoned with this year and one person from another GPAC team (USF) said that we are "striking fear into opponents just by showing up...it's a cool feeling though!"

So, with that...I will leave you waiting for our next tournament's results from Freemont, Nebraska...our last tournament before the GPAC Conference Playdowns...

Wish us luck!!!

Grand View College Tournament: Round 1

On the way to the tournament this morning, there are a few things that I was really unsure of. One, whether or not I was even going to get to play or not, and two, whether or not I was going to be able to play. Okay, so that's the exact same thing twice over, but I literally looked like death warmed over this morning. Thanks to Jill Hoek (Tommy's mommy!!) she was able to get me some stuff and got me through the round so I was able to help my team shoot a decent score!!

With that said, we put up a season low 293 today and we are leading the tournament by 1 over Grand View (the host school) and Kirkwood Community College (from what I've heard, one of the best JuCo's in the entire nation...so we're in pretty good company!)

Big Canada posted up a 73 that was tied with Evey's 73 but still one behind Pritchy's 72. Gater shot 75 and Tommy rounded out our team scoring with a 76. Individually, Pritchy is tied for 4th and Big Canada and Evey are tied for 6th and Gater and Tommy are not too far behind us there. Traveling with us today was our #6 man, Adam Golesh, who posted an 82 playing as an individual.

The course...was, well...a bit odd in most spots. There were a lot of very goofy holes on the course and ones that you have to be very careful on because they can come up and get you when you least expect it. One being hole 18 where the fairway, at it's widest point is about 20 yards wide...it happens, I guess?

Some of the highlights today...Tommy holes out for eagle on the 9th hole from about 80 yards. Recalls that it bounced twice and just spilled into the hole for the very rare 2 on a par 4, nonetheless, it was still a good one!

We are looking forward to tomorrow because it's supposed to be a little cooler and the weather isn't as nice, which seems to suit our team quite nicely, so hopefully we can take that into our hands and make something nice out of it. Wish us luck!

What a week, what a week...

After one heck of a great week and one very long week as well, we have finally returned home to Mitchell, South Dakota where we are catching up on some much needed sleep and of course getting caught up on all that homework. The week was filled with a lot of good memories and some things that will just not be forgotten. We are now much more aware of what we have to do to get prepared to play against the best teams in the country if we are to play against them in later competitions.

Personally, I would like to throw out a few HUMUNGOUS, GIGANTIC thank you's to some very important and crucial people to this golf team and our trip...

First, Mark and Jill Hoek. They were with us all week supporting us through the good times and bad and Mark was one heck of a coach (and not that great of a shuffleboard player, just lucky!!) and he offered some great tips and advice on and off the golf course. Also a big thanks to Jill who was providing us with many different health tips to keep us from getting even more sick than some of us got during our adventure away from Mitchell!

Second, to Don Simmons. He supported the team by providing our team with gas money to get us around and to and from the different events. Without his kind donation, our team might not have been able to make this trip and we greatly appreciate that as well.

To Coach's Uncle Paul and Uncle Jerry for putting up with the team for a meal. That was absolutely fantastic of both of them. We got to have steak and shrimp at Uncle Jerry's beautiful home in Edmond, Oklahoma and Uncle Paul had us for burgers, brats, and the whole works...it was a great time at both places and we are very appreciative to them for what they did for us.

If I missed anyone, I will be sure to get them added on here because they have given us the opportunity to play against the best teams in the country and allowed us to get out there and play while the rest of the teams in the GPAC are sitting at home just wishing that they could get out and play. The advantages that we have been provided with from this trip go above and beyond what any of us could possibly realize and I, personally, cannot thank those that helped our team out enough. Thank you all, for your support of our team and our golfing careers here at Dakota Wesleyan University.

Bethel College Tournament: Round 2

We arrived at Sand Creek Station this morning thinking only one thing: Yikes! This course, from the tips (where we did not play, THANK GOD!) is extremely long and very demanding off the tee. We played the course from a meager 6700 yards and I believe the longest club any of us hit into a par 3 was the punch-cut 4 iron that Tommy hit into hole 7...it was playing right around 200 yards, so that was quite the nice change. That was the one thing that relieved us the most, I believe, was the fact that we were able to hit a couple of 9 irons, 8 irons, or 7 irons into the par 3's instead of blasting rescue or hitting a bunt driver like Gater did yesterday!

With that said...we had some OK scores and some not-so OK scores. It was a pretty difficult day but the course was playing extremely soft so it wasn't as hard as anyone thought. Tommy threw up a 73 (+1) to finish at even par for the tournament and that put him in a tie for 5th place. To add to that, Tommy was the ONLY person in a 120+ person field to birdie the 10th hole at Sand Creek Station, coincidentally dubbed "The Beast!" ...and he conquered that with three absolutely perfect shots into the 618 yard par 5. Tommy hit a knee high drive (as usual) and then ripped a 3 iron to give himself about 155 yards to which he hit a comfortable 8 iron to about 10 feet. After being told by Coach Anderson that if he birdied he got a free t-shirt, he calmly knocked in his putt and accepted the offer. Big Canada was second low for the Tigers throwing up a 77 (+5). This comes after starting his first 7 holes at 7 over par so he was able to grind it out the last 11 holes and post a score that seems a little more respectable. Pritchy fired a 79 (+9), Gater had a difficult finishing day and fired an 83 (+11) and Evey threw up an 89 (+17)...but, keep in mind, he did take a pretty big number on "The Beast" to make his score go up that high. I will not post the number until Evey can get his calculator...I mean, until he tells me it's OK by him! :-) [Sorry Evey!]

Our team score was a depressing 312 which put us into 7th place overall out of 18 teams to give us a two day total of 608, 1 stroke behind Friends University of Wichita, Kansas. We were the lowest team in the GPAC as Hastings and Concordia were present and we are still gearing up and getting ready for our conference tournament that's in 3 weeks!

Look back for more updates from our upcoming trips (providing they do not get snowed out!) and other adventures of the DWU Men's Golf team!

Any questions please feel free to e-mail myself at brabbott@dwu.edu or Coach Anderson at adanders@dwu.edu and also post any comments on the blog if you wish to let us know anything!

Bethel College Tournament: Round 1

We shot another team low again today, firing a 296 which is only good enough for 6th place as of right now, 11 shots behind the leaders from Newman University. We had some OK scores today, and those just were not good enough. Tommy had a great round today shooting 1 under par, 70 which puts him at 4th place individually only 1 shot behind three others that fired a 69. It wasn't an easy day for scoring, but the course was not very difficult at all. The fairways were similar to those of driving ranges and the greens weren't terribly fast or slow, just something in the middle. There was a few driveable par 4's and the par 3's actually played pretty short today considering where the wind was, so that was fairly nice for a change.

Individually, we had Tommy shooting 70, Gater and Pritchy firing a 75, Evey firing a 76 and Big Canada had a pretty ugly day with the putter to shoot a 79 to round out the Tigers scoring.

Overall, we all felt like we hit the ball not too half bad, but our putting was just terrible. I think between the top 5, we had about 12 or 13 three putts which should just not happen, so, tomorrow, putting will be a huge issue and a big key to our success for the second day of this tournament and the last 18 holes of our week long trip.

We are looking forward to playing Sand Creek Station tomorrow in Newton, Kansas because Gater and Big Canada have played the course already and Coach Anderson has also played the course, so we are all looking pretty forward to it. It's going to be a fun course for the rest of the guys and we can guarantee that there are going to be some pretty huge numbers from some other teams (not us, of course!!) on the 10th hole that measures around 650 yards and more appropriately dubbed, "The Beast." So, with the course playing as tough as I think it may, we could really buckle down tomorrow, get on our A game, and we could pass a lot of people individually and as a team.

Look back later for more results about our round tomorrow from Sand Creek Station and the Bethel College tournament...

Southeast Community College Tournament: Round 2

We took our 6 stroke lead and extended it to 16 and won the tournament by....16. We had a lot of great things happen for us today and we managed to put together a pretty solid round which is the new low for the season. We shot a team score today of 300 which was the low of the day yet again by 10 strokes. The next closest competitors were the host school of Southeast Community College. We basically dominated this tournament individually by having Tommy Hoek get his first win of the 2007/2008 season by shooting a 73 today coupled with his 76 yesterday, good enough for a 1st place by 1 stroke. Pritchy and Big Canada both fired identical 75's which was good enough for a tie for 4th place. Gater had a difficult time the second round, shooting an 83 which put him in 8th place and Evey rebounded, despite feeling ill, with a 77 which was good enough for 9th place.

The course played pretty easy again today, very little wind, pretty cold for the first 7 or 8 holes and then the sun decided to shine through and make the next few holes pretty easy which made our back 9 scoring a lot better with Big Canada shooting a 35 (-1), Tommy shooting a 36 (E), Pritchy shooting a 37 (+1) and Evey shooting a 38 (+2).

Despite our better playing, we all know that we can only get better from these experiences and start playing better than the rest of the teams...we did well and we're all proud of ourselves, but it's time to regroup and start fresh for our next tournament in Hesston and Newton, Kansas.

Wish us luck!!!

Southeast Community College Tournament: Round 1

Quote of the day from the starter on the first tee after a player (not sure what school) hits a ball about 2 fairways over...."Wow! I've never seen anything like that before...but I've made a 4 from over there as well!"

That got us all in a pretty good mood to start the day, needless to say. We came out swinging...literally. We shot a season low 307 which is good enough to put is in front of the host school, Southeast Community College who came in with a 313. For individual scores, Gater is in 2nd alone with a 75 (+3) and Tommy is in 3rd alone with a 76 (+4). Pritchy and Big Canada fired a respectable 78 (+6) and Evey rounded out our scoring with an 84 (+12). We were all fairly happy with our scores and know that we can only improve on what we did today. The main thing for us is that we're starting to build a lot of confidence off of our finish in the Oklahoma Christian tournament and trying to use that to propel us forward in our conference play.

The course was set up fairly easy today...playing only about 7000 yards and the wind was fairly calm for most of the day but came up just as we were finishing the round, so the weather was not affecting our play as much as it had in the past few rounds. We know that we can all play better and now that we have had the chance to actually play the course, we know what we are going to be capable of and it's going to make tomorrow seem a little easier.

I'll be posting again sometime tomorrow as we are heading for Wichita after our round for tournament #4 of the season.

Sleep Inn and Suites Classic: Round 3

Today seemed like a much shorter day than yesterday, first and foremost. It was not as tough of a day as it was yesterday which is why we figured that scoring would be pretty easy to do, but it turned out that it was quite the opposite. Big Canada had the low score of the day with a 78, Evey was next with a 79, Gater shot 80, Tommy shot an 80 and Pritchy rounded our scoring (bad back and all) with an 83. It was a difficult round for us to play, possibly because the greens were still very difficult and we are just not as sharp as we should be. However, despite our poor third round of 318 and 10th place finish, there are a number of learning experiences that we are going to be able to take away from this tournament.

We learned from our second round, that we can sure hang with the big boys, considering we were only one shot off of Oklahoma Christian's 307 with out hasty 308. So, it's not like they hit the ball any better than we do and that was one of the goals that Coach Anderson had set out for us to realize for this tournament. It was also a great chance for us to see just what we have to do to better ourselves to get prepared to play against the best if we want to put our team into contention for making the national tournament. We now have the knowledge that when we step onto the tee in our conference tournament or something before that with more teams competing from the GPAC, that we're going to be the best team on the course that day, by far. That is a huge boost of confidence for ourselves and our program because we know that we are going to be able to compete.

So, as I had mentioned before, we finished in 10th place out of 13 with a 3 round total of 953 which isn't too bad, we had some disappointments and let downs in our first and third rounds, but we are still able to hold on to that great second round we had and build off of that.

Now we are off to Beatrice, Nebraska to compete in the Southeast Community College tournament at the long, narrow, and difficult Beatrice Country Club.