Teeing up for conference championship
The last tournament of the year for Mavericks Men’s Golf is approaching, the winner will be deemed the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Champions. Ten teams from the NSIC will travel south once again to Missouri to play at Adams Pointe Golf Club for the second time this year.
The Mavs played at Adams Pointe Golf Club less than a month ago against 19 other teams to preview the course for the NSIC Championship. Half of the teams that played were NSIC rivals while the other half were non conference teams. The Championship will be a 54-hole event spanning from Friday to Sunday only featuring NSIC teams.
Looking back at the preview, the Mavs placed in the dead middle of the pack with a 10th-place finish. This was also the very middle among the conference teams. The Mavs placed higher than four teams in the NSIC while four other teams placed higher than them. Winona State and MSU tied for 10th.
After the NSIC Preview, the Mavs went on to play at the Mule Invite where they improved drastically. In their last round of golf at The Mule they had a third-round finish which was good
enough to place them in eighth overall.
In this tournament, junior Jack Klimek put the team on his back and placed fifth overall. In his last round, he recorded five birdies which jumped him up 11 spots. If the Mavs can see this type of performance come from more than one player, the team will be in very good hands.
“If we could have a couple of guys put two good scores together at the same time it would give us some space between the other teams,” Head Coach Alex Schmitz said. “We have a very solid roster top to bottom, we just need everyone to put it all together.”
One thing that will help them put it all together at the NSIC Championship is their new facility that was built in the basement of the Taylor’s Center this winter. The Mavs fundraised over $11,000 to build the golf program’s first-ever golf facility which features two golf simulators along with a putting green with multiple holes and slopes to give an accurate approach to a true putting green.
They had the opportunity to see Adams Pointe earlier this season and now they can recreate tough shots they saw at the course and learn how to perfect them using the putting green and simulators. This will be a big key to success for the upcoming championship.
The tournament will tee off at 9 am Friday and will crown the NSIC champion.
Write to Luke Jackson at Luke.Jackson.2@mnsu.edu
Header Photo: The Minnesota State’s Men’s Golf team will compete in the NSIC Championship over the coming weekend. (Courtesy MSU Athletics)