The men’s golf team placed sixth out of 16 teams in the 17th Annual Northeastern State University (NSU) Golf Classic on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Sophomore Mason Banger led the team with a career-best second place overall finish in the tournament. The team sought to improve on its eighth place finish at the conference preview, and did exactly that.
“This week we stepped up big time,” head coach Dustin Howell said. “It started from the moment we left the parking lot, saying that this is the tournament we need to start making waves toward the postseason.”
While a sixth place finish fairs well, the Bisons had the potential to finish even higher. A tough third day brought the Bisons down, as they searched for consistency in their performance.
“We had a great second round and it was the lowest team score of the day, but we sandwiched that very good score with two mediocre scores, which brought us down the pack a little bit,” sophomore Cameron Murry said. “We still have a lot of freshmen on the team, so we’re kind of finding our feet with that. We need a bit more consistency in the team.”
Consistency can be difficult to come by when the team is characterized by inexperience. According to Howell, all 13 of the active golfers on the roster are freshmen and sophomores.
“Everybody’s young, so you’ve got the energy, you’ve got the youthfulness and, unfortunately, you’ve got the inexperience too,” Howell said. “With a young team you will kind of have rollercoaster rounds, and this tournament was classic for that: 307, 290, 302. So, the difficulty is trying to find that consistency.”
As they look forward to their next tournament, the team plans to work on its mental toughness. As the freshmen continue to gain experience, the Bisons hope to continue to improve.
“It’s all there — we have such good quality and depth on our team,” Banger said. “I think our problem has more to do with the mental side of the game. If the freshmen can control their emotions and keep calm, which will come with tournament play, things look very promising for Bison golf.”
The progress so far has set the golf team’s eyes on postseason play. Howell said he hopes to make the regional tournament, as the NSU Classic proved that the the Bisons can compete with anyone on any given day if they play their best.
“I think we can contend, there’s no doubt about the talent level here, it’s just growing into our own shoes,” Howell said. “What we will need going forward is to work on our mental game to flatten out the rollercoaster of highs and lows and do what we do best.”
The Bisons seek to gain experience and sharpen their mental toughness as they look forward to their next tournament, the Central Region Preview at Missouri Western State University on Oct. 12-13.
