After a 12 day layoff, the BG men’s golf team will be back in action today at the Xavier Invitational.
The tournament will cover two days and consist of 54 holes of stroke play. Action will get underway both today and tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. with a shotgun start.
After a spotless start to the season in which the Falcons have swept team and individual honors in both their tournaments, coach Garry Winger’s squad is anxious to get back in the swing of things after a week spent dodging the weather in an attempt to keep their game sharp.
‘All the guys are really excited to be back in competition this week,’ Winger said. ‘Everybody kind of got a little stir-crazy sitting around for a week.’
Included in this week’s field are fellow Mid-American Conference opponents Akron, Ball State and Ohio as well as host Xavier from the Atlantic-10 and DePaul and Marquette of the Big East.
‘The overall competition is probably a step above what we’ve faced in the first two tournaments,’ Winger said. ‘There are a few teams whom we haven’t faced yet that we expect to be pretty good.’
In particular, Winger expects Xavier and DePaul to be the main two teams to keep an eye on, with Marquette as a possible wild-card contender.
‘Xavier will be very tough on their home course, and DePaul is extremely solid from top to bottom,’ Winger said.
Making the homestanding Musketeers especially dangerous is the sterling play of Sebastian MacLean. MacLean, a sophomore from Bolivia, set a new freshman scoring record for Xavier in 2008-2009, on his way to qualifying for the NCAA Regional. He has already posted two top-10s this fall and will almost certainly play a role in the final outcome.
Whoever ultimately emerges victorious will have to successfully negotiate a brutal finishing stretch at Oasis Golf Club. First there is the nearly 200-yard par-3 16th, which features water on three sides of the green.
Then it’s on to the short par-4 17th, a hole that may at first appear benign, but one at which many approach shots spin back into a menacing water hazard that fronts the green.
The 18th is a long, tough par-4 that tests golfers from tee to green. To the left of the narrow fairway lurks water, to the right sits an out-of-bounds area. Players fortunate enough to find the fairway must hit a pinpoint approach shot to a green that is guarded by water and bunkers.
‘The last three holes require precision on every shot,’ Winger said. ‘Every hole features water, and if you bail out on any of them it is very tough to get up-and-down. If someone gets through that stretch at even-par or plus-one, they will be in very good shape.’
While Winger would be thrilled if his team could pull off an improbable hat trick and win this week, he is fully aware that golf’s fickle nature renders no outcome certain.
‘You can never expect a start like the one we’ve had,’ Winger said. ‘Our guys are full of confidence and playing well right now, but golf is such a funny game. Things can change dramatically week to week and you can never get too comfortable with yourself. We just have to try and stay consistent from week to week.’
