The men’s golf season is well underway, and the team has had a great season, placing in the top half in most of their tournaments. One historic moment so far is the team winning their first tournament in over a decade. 

“We just won our first tournament three weeks ago, and it was the first time in 12 years,” First-Year Alexandre Thery said. “Coach [Tom] Lawrence was very happy, and that was good because a lot of guys played well. We had three guys in the top 10. That gives us a lot of hope for the other tournaments and was a good start to the season.” 

Despite significant achievements, the team has experienced a mix of successes and challenges throughout the season. 

“We experienced some downs in the last tournament,” First-Year Sam Evenson said. “We would come off a good first round against a pretty good field of teams, and they would always keep it going. We’ve seen that we can’t get ahead of ourselves and that we still need to get that right mindset to play our best.”

On April 5, the golf team placed 20th at the Illinois Wesleyan invite. Overall, the team did well against the other opponents and improved throughout the two days, placing higher than usual. 

“The second day, we did better and improved,” Evenson said. “ We didn’t really get to practice outside that whole week because of the snow, but it was just good to see that we can improve after the first day after a couple of setbacks. So overall, the second day was a great turn with great rounds. In the first round, we improved a little bit to make the next few days easier.”

Lawrence has seen how special this season has been so far and said he hopes his team will keep working hard.

“This is only my second year coaching the men’s team, but the amount of work these guys have put in is really special,” Lawrence said. “This group is going to do big things. With four freshmen in our top 6 and guys banging at the door to move into that group, it is something that I absolutely love. They compete every day, and that is making us better.”

During the off-season, the team has been using the newly built indoor golf center in Carver Center, which has improved their game. 

“I feel our short games, putting and chipping, have gotten so much better, thanks in large part to our indoor golf center, where players worked all winter on their games,” Lawrence said. 

For the remainder of the season, the team hopes to compete for the conference as well as hold themselves to a standard and keep competing at their best.

“I think that seeing what we can do individually, holding ourselves to a standard will help the team overall,” Evenson said. “It’s an individual sport, but it’s more for team-wise since getting a better individual score will help our team, and that’s the goal.”