Kirk Danielson

The 2006 golf teams are already looking toward the end of their fall seasons. They hope for a strong finish, before the not-so-friendly-to-golf winter season begins. The men’s team is young, with Steve Klock the only senior on the squad. The women’s team lost three valuable seniors from last year’s squad.

Men

The men’s team has been competitive in its tournaments this year. They started the season with a third-place finish in the Hawkeye Intercollegiate in Iowa City, Iowa. At the Kansas Fall Invitational, the team finished 6th out of 16 teams. Their best finish of the season was second place, during a wet and windy weekend at DePaul University’s invitational tournament in West Chicago, Ill.

Last weekend, the men’s team finished 5th in the Bill Ross Intercollegiate tournament in Kansas City, Mo. Future conference rival University of Missouri-Kansas City finished 4th in the tournament, four strokes ahead of the Jacks. North Dakota State University finished ten strokes behind the Jacks, in seventh place. The Jacks were in 5th place after the first day’s 18 holes, and held on through the final 36 holes to finish with a team score of 879.

At the tournament, sophomore Trent Peterson led the team with a final score of 214, tied for 7th place. He finished just five strokes back of the overall leader of the tournament. Sophomore Tim Kalil finished in 20th place with a score of 220, and red-shirted sophomore Landon Koss ended up in 31st place with a score of 223. Klock posted a score of 228, while freshman Justin Jenkins rounded out the team’s scoring, finishing with 233 strokes.

Head Coach Jared Baszler said, “Overall I was fairly happy (with the tournament). What we needed was another round like the second round or third round, and we would have caught some more teams. It was good to see the lowest round as the second round of our first day, because it’s always harder that second round. Playing 36 holes a day, it’s good to see a low round that second round.”

Women

The women’s golf team has been met with stiff competition in its tournaments so far this year. The team finished 9th at the Hawkeye tournament, and 14th at the Stone Cold Chip-n-Club Invite in Lincoln, Neb.

Last weekend the women’s team played in the Oral Roberts University Shootout in Tulsa, Okla. The team was sitting in 11th place after the first day, but slipped three places to finish with a total team score of 990.

In the tournament, sophomore Amanda Rosol led the Jacks. She had her best tournament of the year, finishing in 19th place with a score of 235. Sophomore Holly Opatz improved in her final round, by shooting a 77 after scores of 84 and 85. Opatz finished in 50th place overall, with a score of 246. Freshman Stephanie Burns closed out the tournament with a 250 card, and senior Dallas Willman finished with a final score of 259.

“On paper they didn’t finish (the tournament) very well, but that’s the strongest field they’ll see every year, at that tournament. Score-wise, we had a 318 round and that was by far our best round this year. The other rounds we finished under 340, and that was our goal. It was a promising weekend, and we had some good individual play as well,” said Baszler.

The women will compete in the Bronco Fall Invitational in Boise, Idaho, this weekend, and will finish their season Oct. 16-17 at the Kenneth Smith Classic in Kansas City, Kan.

The men’s final tournament is next week at the Mission Inn Collegiate Classic in Orlando, Fla.

#1.884206:1563850828.jpg:golf01.jpg:The women’s golf team finishes its fall season on Oct. 16-17 at the Kenneth Smith Classic in Kansas City, Kan.: