No. 28 Men's Golf Ready For Spring After Valuable Alumni Trip to South Carolina
2/21/2018 10:16:00 AM | Men's Golf
KENT, Ohio - The Kent State men's golf is primed for the start of the 2018 spring season after returning from a chance to work on their games and take in some valuable lessons at the team's annual alumni matches in South Carolina.
Current KSU players stood on the 17th tee at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course, ready to challenge the same 229-yard par three that was the sight of so much drama during the 1991 Ryder Cup. It's the spot where USA's Mark Calcavecchia watched Europe's Colin Montgomery put his tee shot into the water late in a key Sunday match, then promptly skulled his halfway to the hole into the same watery grave.
As the Golden Flashes found similar struggles at 17 this past weekend, alums Jon Mills and Ben Curtis - one the team's current associate head coach and the other a major championship winner who volunteers as a KSU assistant - calmly hit their tee shots into the left greenside bunker, made bogey, and moved on.
"Ben told the guys that with the wind blowing the way it was that day, the stroke average on the 17th hole in a PGA Tour event would have been four," said Kent State head coach Herb Page.
The lesson in course management was not to take on the teeth of such a difficult hole with water right and a long, forced carry to the green.
"They have to understand that the pros don't take the chance," said Page. "They hit it over to the left, make no more than a four, and go on to the next hole. It was good for our guys to see. That's what you get when you are playing with two assistant coaches who have played and had success on the PGA Tour. It was a fabulous round and a great learning experience."
KSU senior Ian Holt battle the cold wind coming off of the Atlantic to a spectacular 2-under-par round on the Ocean Course. The team also visited Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, S.C. and Wescott Plantation in North Charleston.
"Our young players, our three freshmen and two sophomores, all played very well while we were down south," said Page. "They all worked very hard. We used the trip to figure out who would be in our fifth spot in Louisiana when we start the season next week."
Freshman Will Kurtz won the team's qualifier, earning the chance to join seniors Holt and Chase Johnson, and juniors Bjarki Petursson and Gisli Sveinbergsson Feb. 26-27 for the Louisiana Classics at Lafayette's Oakbourne Country Club.
"It was a very tight qualifier with Kurtz and freshman Brayden Baldridge, who played so well," said Page. "Our sophomores were also right there. It was highly competitive. We have an individual spot to go to Louisiana, so Brayden will go and compete on this first trip, which will be a very good experience for him."
"We are the defending champions at the Louisiana Classics, so we'll go there with some good memories of beating teams like Texas A&M, LSU, and Illinois. Right now, we are No. 28 in the nation after being around 13-and-17 most of the fall. We aren't happy with 28, but that spot was well earned with a bad tournament in Hawaii. But how we are playing in May is what matters for us, so we are eager to get started again."
KSU won by 19 shots over Texas A&M in last year's event. The field for the 33rd Annual Louisiana Classics will once again include No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 11 Illinois. Mid-American Conference rival Toledo will also compete.
