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NMU Golf teams practicing

Men's Golf Braden Golisek - Assistant Director of Sports Information

PREVIEW: Golf has Busy Fall Finale

The men play two tournaments and the women compete in one over the final weekend of the fall season

MARQUETTE, Mich. -- The fall season for NMU golf comes to a close this weekend, with the men's and women's teams heading to the Lower Peninsula for tournament action.

The teams open with the Panther Invitational in Augusta, Michigan, hosted by Davenport and running from Saturday, October 17, to Sunday, October 18. The women compete at Stonehedge North and the men at Stoatin Brae; this tournament acts as the 'GLIAC Tournament Preview', as both of those venues are home to the GLIAC Championship tournament at the end of the spring season, and the field will feature almost exclusively GLIAC teams.

The women's slate of regular season competition comes to a close after the weekend, but the men have a quick turnaround for its final tournament of the fall, competing in the Warrior Invitational at the Westshore GC in Wayne County, Michigan, hosted by Wayne State. Running Monday, October 19, through Tuesday, October 20, the men will have two tournaments in four days to close out the fall.

Fans can follow along with live scoring at Scoreboard, powered by Clippd, and stay up to date by visiting nmuwildcats.com and subscribing to the official NMU golf social media channels.

Head coach Ben Johnson was available for media on Tuesday and was asked how the fall season has shaped up from his point of view. 

"So far, so mediocre."

The men's team has finished near the bottom of the leaderboard in both of its tournaments, and the women just turned in a solid tournament at the Flyer Fall Intercollegiate last week.

While the team standings haven't been up to par for Johnson, the 'Cats have young talent on the men's side and solid team scoring for the women, both of which can lead to success.

"The guys' team struggled a little bit in their first two tournaments, but I think they're trending in the right direction. We have two young guys leading the way from Marquette, Easton Aho and Boden Moore; they showed some bright spots in our last tournament. They're going to carry that over into our GLIAC preview over at Stoatin Brae downstate, and then hopefully our other guys that are on the team can kind of pick up their game and set the tone going into the spring season.

"The women's team played pretty solid in our last tournament. They were in fourth for a little bit, kind of struggled the last day, but are definitely taking some large steps in the right direction. We were not the most skilled team in our division last year, but we've gotten a lot better. We have more consistent scoring, everyone's kind of doing their part, and we're looking pretty solid, and I'm excited for them."

It's a big step from high school to college golf, and a major part of finding success after high school is being able to succeed on the more challenging college courses. 

High school courses tend to be shorter and not as challenging, whereas college courses, in a lot of cases, are longer, have tighter fairways and heavier roughs, feature faster greens with more undulation, and can be much trickier in windy and less than optimal conditions. 

Course management becomes critical when looking to score well in tournaments, and is an aspect of the game that Johnson says his team is working on constantly. When things don't go your way against the course, being able to respond positively is critical.

"I think most of our team is pretty levelheaded, so they don't let it really affect them, but it's hard not to, you know? It's only human to be out there and have the elements and some sort of adversity getting under your skin. Whether you're not making putts and you're hitting the ball well, or you're not hitting the ball well and you're making putts, golf's an interesting game. It's the mental thing, and that's something that we're constantly trying to work on.

"[In] golf, you're always playing against the course. You're not just playing against the other teams out there; you're playing against the course, and you're playing against yourself. We're very fortunate too; our assistant coach Tom Gemignani is a sports psychologist, so he's been able to help get them to focus in on certain things or see golf in a different way that even I haven't thought of. So, it's pretty helpful."

While you have to be mentally tough on the course, you still have to turn in a good scorecard at the end of the day if you want to climb the leaderboard, and Johnson points back to course management as a key to success for both teams as the fall season comes to a close.

"I think if we manage our par threes and our par fives better than we have in the past, that'll make us that much better of a team. We're usually pretty competitive in par four scoring, and oddly enough we've been towards the top of leading the way in par three scoring, which is great because par threes are always more difficult than they need to be.

"But our par five scoring in the past has been less than stellar. If we can lose a couple shots there, whether we're making pars or birdies, but we have to avoid bogeys and doubles. Whether that's going for the green in two or being smart and taking every shot and making it a three-shot hole and trying to make a long putt for birdie and hitting the middle of the green.

"We've just got to play smarter, and if we trim up on our par fives, then we're going to be competitive with any other team in our conference."






 
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Players Mentioned

Easton Aho

Easton Aho

Freshman
Boden Moore

Boden Moore

Freshman

Players Mentioned

Easton Aho

Easton Aho

Freshman
Boden Moore

Boden Moore

Freshman