Krista Tschetter

The South Dakota State University men’s golf team took home first place honors in their season opener Sept. 6-7 at the Brookings Country Club.

Competition at the Jackrabbit Invitational included teams from Briar Cliff, Augustana, Kansas Wesleyan, The University of South Dakota, Northern State University, Dakota State University and Presentation College.

The SDSU Blue team finished with a team score of 602, 12 strokes ahead second-place Briar Cliff.

“I don’t know how it would be possible to be more proud,” said Bob Brotsky, head golf coach. “We had a three-stroke lead after day one, and we increased that to a 12-stroke lead.”

Hot and windy weather conditions hampered golfers a little during the tournament, and Brotsky believes better conditions would have led to even lower scores.

“It was extremely hot, humid and windy and it certainly had an effect on the scores,” Brotsky said.

“I suspect the scores could have been even better, but we’re happy with the way things turned out.”

The SDSU Blue also boasted two individual medal winners- Seniors Brian Schultz and Ryan Cooley.

Both golfers tallied day-one scores of 74, but shaved strokes off on day two to end with Cooley at 72 and Schultz a 73. Cooley’s total 146 and Schultz final 147 landed them in first and second place.

The SDSU Yellow team took 9th place in the tournament with a total score of 665.

They were led by Sophomore Michael Kuchta, whose two-day 159 landed him in a 5th place finish among all SDSU golfers.

Third and fourth places went to the Blue team’s Matt Conlon (155) and Charlie Jacobson (156) who improved his first day score six strokes.

Brotsky has a hopeful season outlook after such an impressive first tournament.

“I’m thinking this will give us some momentum,” Brotsky said. “We already beat both USD and Augie this weekend.”

SDSU men’s golf travels to Fargo Sept. 12-13 for the Irv Kaiser Invitational.

“We’ll have different teams as competition next weekend so we’ll see how we stack up,” said Brotsky.