May 4, 2009 (Final Entry)
Well, school is out for the summer which means school is out forever for me! Sort of a bittersweet feeling, similar to that of our AMC tournament this past weekend.
We didn't play quite as well as we would've liked but we ended up finishing 2nd in the conference with Malone finishing ahead of us. It was a good finish, but definitely a little disappointing because only the winning team gets an automatic bid to NAIA Nationals and we felt like that was our best shot at getting into the tournament. I believe we are ranked 24th on Golfstat and somewhere around 27th in the national rankings to there is a slight chance that we could receive an at-large bid. All we can do now is wait and hope.
No matter how that turns out, this season has been a lot of fun on and off the course and the team has had a lot of success. Brendan, Brett, and myself might have competed in our last college tournament this past weekend and it is something that we are all going to really miss. We made a lot of memories over the past four years and we have seen the program come a long way in those four years. It would definitely be icing on the cake if we were able to go compete in the national championship but even if that doesn't happen, I wouldn't trade the last four years for anything.
We find out on Friday whether or not we get a bid so until then I'm going to enjoy not having to go to class and hope for the best!
Also, I'm not sure how many more of these I will write so I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thanks to Coach. He puts in a lot of hard work that goes unseen and I know I speak for the whole team when I say thank you for all that you do!
April 27, 2009
Well, unfortunately, our home invitational didn't turn out the way we were hoping it would. Kroggy did his part on day two for us to make a comeback but the rest of us didn't quite have it. We ended up finishing 3rd in a tournament that we feel like we should have been competing for a win in. Cumberlands had a very solid tournament and they definitely earned a win but we were pretty disappointed with the way we played.
We were hoping that with a solid finish at our tournament, we would be able to get into the Top 25 in the rankings and be a little bit closer to our goal of making it to nationals. Unfortunately, we are now on the outside looking in. The rankings just came out and we are just barely outside of the Top 25. The good news is that we can either look at this as a missed opportunity, or a new opportunity.
Because of our spot in the rankings we probably don't have quite as good of chance as getting an at-large bid which means we are going to need to win our conference tournament. Personally, I'm excited for the challenge. We know what is in front of us and we know exactly what we need to do. There are going to be a lot of solid teams there and right now we are ranked second in our conference behind Malone who plays well here year in and year out.
Either we can go in, already beat because of our last tournament, or we can go in with a fresh attitude and try to compete for a conference title and a national championship bid. With our finals behind us (SWEET!), hopefully we will be able to bring our best this week to the golf course and just see what happens, the rest is out of our control.
April 20, 2009
This is the first entry that I have written mid-tournament, so hopefully while I reflect a little bit on today's play, I can focus on tomorrow and what we need to accomplish. No matter what happened today we need to go out and play our best golf with what we are given tomorrow.
Today was a long frustrating day on the golf course. It felt more like January out there than it did late April. The rain seemed to never stop, the wind seemed to only blow harder as the day went on, and the temperature was in the 40's for most of the day. It was a challenge in and of itself just to try to keep our clubs and grips dry let alone play.
Unfortunately, we can't control those things. We went out today and played our best with what we were given. The scores were high today so it's easy to get down on ourselves but we have to stay positive no matter what the number beside our name says. We were able to hang tough today and we are sitting in third place going into tomorrow's round.
The weather forecast for tomorrow doesn't seem to be much better, it will be a real test of mental toughness. The team that is going to go home with the hardware tomorrow won't be the best team, it won't be the most talented team, but it will be the most mentally tough and mentally disciplined team. If we can keep our heads in it for 18 holes tomorrow we will give ourselves a chance to come away with a win because the talent is there.
We have a lot of work to do, but it can definitely be done. That is easier said then done on a day when a bogey can suddenly become a good score but that is what we are going to be faced with again tomorrow.
So, we're gonna throw on the rain gear and really put ourselves to the test tomorrow....hopefully we are up for the challenge.
April 15, 2009
We just got back from the NAIA Classic in Indianapolis and we were able to put up two solid scores on two extremely tough days and ended up finished tied for fourth out of 15 teams. We were pretty happy with the way we played. We all left a few shots out there but we also did a good job of keeping it together in some very tough conditions. Here is a little bit of what happened this week.
We woke up Monday morning for day one of the Brickyard and saw exactly what we didn't want to see.....lots of rain. And just to make things a little bit better, it was freezing too. Brendan had a little bit of trouble finding his way to breakfast that morning, getting in the elevator to take it down to the first floor only to find out that he was already on the first floor. Thankfully, even though he couldn't find his way around the hotel, he was able to find his way around the course after a lengthy rain delay. He had a great day firing a 73 which really gave our team a boost. He finished the tournament at 150 and his solid play really helped our team to a solid finish. Brett, Kroggy, and Trent all played well in spite of the conditions - it was definitely a good team effort this week and our finish showed it.
We were thankful to be able to get in all 36 holes but the conditions were tough. We got a little bit of rain on both days and the wind seemed to never stop blowing. It was definitely two long rounds of golf but when it was all said and done we had some really solid play from top to bottom this week. Hopefully our finish will help give us a boost in the national rankings and get us closer to our goal of making the national tournament. We are on the right track and we are going to continue to work hard and see what God has in store for us.
P.S. Thanks to my dad, Mr. and Mrs. Roach, Mr. and Mrs. Krogstad, and Mr. Bigler for your support this week. We appreciate it!
April 6, 2009
This past week has been pretty low key for the golf team. We've had a nice little break since our last tournament down in Kentucky and we are now a week away from the NAIA Classic at the Brickyard. This is probably the biggest tournament on our schedule outside of our American Mideast Conference tournament at the end of the year. This is definitely a tournament that I have been looking forward to. There will be a lot of good competition there and this will be a great opportunity to get some recognition nationally as a team if we are able to play well.
The last tournament was a bit of a let down, so hopefully we will go into this tournament being a little more prepared and having a better state of mind, ready to play our best. One of my favorite quotes is, "confidence is a result of hard work, not past success." I am a big believer in that school of thought. I know that the rest of the guys and myself especially will be putting in a lot of hard work this week to be able to go into next week with a renewed confidence.
There will be five guys making the trip to Indianapolis and as of right now only three have secured their spot in the top five - Matt (Krogstad), Brett (Bigler) and myself based off of our play last week at the SEKI Invitational. The rest of the guys will be finishing up their qualifying this week to see who gets the last two spots. No matter which five we take I'm confident that we will have five guys who are able to compete with any other team there. Hopefully we can enjoy the rest of the week practicing and preparing for the tournament and enjoy our Easter break before we get back to the grind of competition on Monday. We might even have to watch a little bit of the Master's before then as well!
March 31, 2009
We just got back from the SEKI Invitational in London, Kentucky and it is safe to say that the ride home seemed a lot longer than the ride there. We had a bit of a disappointing finish on the second day of the tournament after putting ourselves in a good spot after day one.
We didn't play our best golf on the first day, but we got some good scores and we got a huge lift from Brett (Bigler) who was playing 5-man that week but came in with our second lowest score at 74. We were able to put up a good enough score as a team to get us into a tie for third heading into the second day. We were obviously going to have to play better if we wanted to place in the top two or three but we were happy with where we had put ourselves after a rough first day.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get it done. Kroggy (Matt Krogstad) put up a great score on the second day with a 71 and with his 145 finish he ended up tied for second overall as an individual. It was a great tournament for him, but we didn't give him much help as a team. We ended up shooting a 313 on the second day and we fell a few spots into a 6th-place finish.
This was obviously a rough day of golf for us and it definitely wasn't what we were hoping for. This was a big tournament and a good opportunity for us to get some recognition nationally and we just didn't put up the scores we needed. But, this isn't the end of the world. As a team we are going to take this and instead of looking at it as a disappointment, we are going to look at it as an opportunity to improve. I think several of us saw things in our games that we need to work on and we are going to have a good opportunity to work on those since we have this next weekend off.
Our next tournament is in Indianapolis at the Brickyard so we are again going to have another opportunity to perform in a big tournament with teams from all over the nation.
Hopefully, we can take this past tournament and use it as part of our learning curve and be a little more prepared when we go to Indianapolis in a couple weeks. Until then, we are going to continue to work hard at our games, and continue to try to be the best examples for Christ that we can on the golf course.
March 23, 2009
Friday night after we had finished playing our first round at the Shawnee State Invitational, Coach decided that we were going to go to "Hickie's" for dinner. The team had played well that day (even though some of the guys went straight from the van to the first tee because of some confusion on the tee times) putting up one of the best 18-hole team scores in school history with three of our four scores being under par. That gave us plenty to talk about on the way to the restaurant. My dad had made the trip down to watch the team play so I hopped in his truck and rode with him to the restaurant. We had a good talk about my round that day and about what was going to come tomorrow. He was really excited to see the entire team playing so well from top to bottom and so was I.
We arrived at the restaurant and at first glance we weren't sure what we had gotten ourselves into. We walked in and it was packed so the team split up and we all found some empty seats. I found a front row ticket to watch them cook their world famous Hickie's burgers. I don't think I have ever seen so much grease in my entire life, but I'm also certain that I've never eaten a burger that tasted that good either...actually, four burgers, but that's beside the point. I heard Bennington had five so I didn't feel bad. It was a great experience and another great memory.
We got back to the hotel and we all sat down to have our team meeting. Coach talked a bit about how he was pleased with the way that we had played but that we had a long way to go. He encouraged us to not let up until the job was done. We had almost let a tournament slip away last fall so he reminded us of that and told us that we needed to go out, play hard, and not leave anything to chance. We had a quick team devotional and then we all headed to our rooms to watch some NCAA tournament ball. My dad had gotten a room at our hotel so I headed down there and spent some time with him watching the games.
I think it was after 12:30 before most of us got to bed. We had all stayed up for the Ohio State game and it turned out to be a good game, unless you are an OSU fan like most of us. After the double overtime thriller we all headed to bed, tee times started at 8 a.m. the next morning and the forecast said it was going to be 31 degrees. It's safe to say we weren't to excited about that.
The next morning rolled around and thankfully there was a frost delay. That was probably a good thing - especially for Nick and Chris. They were supposed to leave at 7:30 a.m...at 7:28 a.m. Coach was knocking on their door and they were still out cold so they needed all the extra time they could get. It turned out to be a great day after the chilly morning and our team was again able to put up a good score. We actually broke the 36-hole school record so coach was really pleased with the way we backed up our play on the first day.
It was a great win for the team and a great tournament for a lot of the guys. We had three players make the all-tournament team so it was great to see everybody playing well. The rest of the team had some streaks of great play as well. Brett had fired a 35 on his back nine the first day which really helped out the team and Brendan shot a 35 on his front nine on the second day. It seemed that everybody played some solid golf at one point or another throughout the weekend.
Hopefully we will be able to build on this and continue to make strides toward our goal of earning a bid to the national tournament. This was a great start to what we hope will be a great spring season.
March 16, 2009
This is my first blog of the ’09 season so I will do my best to fill you guys in on what we have been up to the past few weeks getting ready for the season!
This past week was our first full week back from Spring Break. The weather has been a rude awakening after spending a week down in Lakeland, Florida on our annual team golf trip. The first few days of Spring Break were a little chilly, but by the end of the week we were all getting sun burned and loving it. This was sadly my last Spring Break trip, but I can definitely say it was my best. Coach had set a few simple goals for us before we left. He wanted us to grow closer as a team, grow closer to Christ, and try to do all we could to sharpen up our golf games after a long, cold winter.
We did the best that we could to achieve those goals and we made a lot of good memories over break like singing over played songs on the radio at the top of our lungs, watching Nick bowl 300’s on the Wii, Yeiter killing everybody in ping-pong, listening to Coach talk about his favorite hole at Grasslands, Brett out-driving me, playing golf with Bill Boulet, convincing Brendan that cool kids wear sweat bands to play golf, go-cart races, playing golf with each other as a team, and many, many more. We definitely grew closer as a team as the week wore on and we really strived to grow closer to Christ. Coach led us through the book of Philippians throughout the week and it turned out to be a great study for myself and the rest of the guys.
Spring Break has really become a good time for us as a team to just try to get the rust out of our games and get some rounds under our belts. That was really our main focus, just to get the feeling back of actually playing golf. We had spent the past month hitting balls into a net and tinkering with our swings on video so it was just nice to be able to be outside and see our ball fly. Dan (Atkeson) had been recovering from knee surgery the past few months and he was finally able to really start getting after it so that was good to see as well. The fact that it was sunny and 75 didn’t hurt either. Unfortunately, it only lasted for a week but at least we got to enjoy it while we were there.
This past week we got in our first round of the spring here in Ohio and I don’t think it ever got above 50. But, the countdown ticker on my computer says that we are only 4 days, 11 hours, and 25 minutes away from our first tournament of the spring at Shawnee State, so whether its 75 or 45 we will be doing everything we can to get ready for this weekend.
I have really high expectations about what our team can do this season. I feel like we have worked harder than ever this off season and I also feel like this is one of the most talented and deepest teams that has ever played at Cedarville. We currently have nine guys on the roster and I have confidence in all nine of them. Everybody on this team is capable of contributing and the competition amongst ourselves as a team is continually driving us to improve. The past few months have been an eager time for all of us. We have put in a lot of hard work and practice to prepare us for the next couple of months and we are really excited to see what God has in store for us.
P.S. Myself and the guys wanted to give a special thanks to Pastor Boulet, the Pate Family, and the Burnetti Family for a great Spring Break! Thanks for all that you do!
Trevor Bowman is a senior business management major from Harpster, Ohio. He became Cedarville’s first-ever NAIA All-American in men’s golf when he was named to the 2008 Second Team.
