After a week off from competition, the BG men’s golf team will travel to Central Pennsylvania this weekend to take part in the Rutherford Intercollegiate hosted by Penn St. The Falcons hope to use this week to get their house in order for next week’s Mid-American Conference Championships in Nashport, Ohio.

“We’ve done a lot of practicing during our week off,” said coach Garry Winger. “We’ve had a chance to play some really relaxing, enjoyable rounds of golf, which is something that our team hasn’t experienced for a little while.”

Coming off of an 11th place finish in Kentucky, in which his team’s mental approach was not where he wanted it to be, Winger is hoping for some signs of improvement this week in Happy Valley.

“The problems we had are the sort of thing that does not go away overnight,” Winger said. It’s easy to talk about in practice but until the improvement actually shows up in tournament play, I have no idea what to expect.

The 54-hole event will begin Saturday with 36 holes, followed by 18 Sunday. Headlining the field is the host Nittany Lions, who are lead by senior Kevin Foley, the 46th-ranked player in the country.

For Winger, this week also carries some personal significance to it, as he played under longtime Pennsylvania State University head coach Greg Nye when Nye was the head coach at BG in the late 80’s.

Since Nye left BG, he was built Penn St. into a national powerhouse.

“I have nothing but respect for him and what he has been able to do at Penn St,” said Winger, who still keeps in close contact with his former mentor. “When I first started at Bowling Green, coach Nye invited us to this tournament when we were having trouble getting into a lot of events. For that, I am forever indebted to him, and as a result we have continued to support this event over the years that I have been here.”