Cedarville University Yellow Jackets

April 22, 2019

Welcome back to the last BLOG of the season Jacket fans!

It’s hard to believe we have made it to the end of yet ANOTHER season and school year. With only two weeks of school left, we are grinding out our final projects and studying for exams. All the while, the team was getting prepped for our last and biggest tournament of the year: G-MAC! This past weekend, Jared, Isaac, Cody, Hayden, and Kyle headed back down to UK Big Blue in Lexington, Kentucky for the second time this spring season.

Unfortunately, like nearly every spring tournament, the practice round brought the best weather for the weekend once again. This tournament had a 36-18 hole format, which called for a long Friday round, which happened to be accompanied by a constant rain all day long. This made for an even longer day, but the guys were still able to put some good scores out in the first round. Cody led the way with a first round 73, followed by Hayden who shot a 75 and Isaac and Jared who shot 77 and 79 respectively. Kyle fired a first round score of 81. Round Two was a different story as the rain picked up even more so. Cody struggled to follow up his outstanding score as he posed an 85 for the second 18 holes of the day. Jared had a very solid second round with a 76 and Isaac followed suit with a 78. Hayden had another good round considering the conditions with a 79. Kyle struggled and was unable to shoot in the 80's as he posted a 90.

Round Three was also victim to rainy weather, as we have come to accept with spring golf in the Midwest. Cody got back on track with a score of 76, followed up by Hayden, Isaac, and Kyle who all posted rounds of 79. Jared was not far behind as he came in with a final round score of 81. This finish put the team in eighth place out of 12 teams in the conference. It wasn’t quite what we were hoping for, so now begins our off-season grind once again to continue to improve to compete for the top spot next spring.

We have so much enjoyed competing this season as well as growing in our friendships and relationships with Christ. We want to thank everyone who has supported us on our journey this year, whether you donated money for our spring break trip, or simply lifted us up in your prayers for traveling mercies, we are so grateful for each and every one who has contributed to this program. We wouldn’t be able to do the things we do and go the places we go without you guys. Thank you all once again for following us for another golf season. It has been my pleasure to serve as this year’s BLOGGER and keep you up to date with our lives and our golf games. We hope everyone has an amazing summer filled with family time and rest and relaxation. With that being said, we will see you guys this coming fall with some new additions to the team!

As always, God bless and Go Jackets!


April 16, 2019

Welcome back to another week!
 
We have just returned from our most recent tournament at Cumberland Trail in Pataskala, Ohio with some GREAT momentum heading into the G-MAC Tournament coming up! This tournament was especially fun for us because all 11 guys got to play in this one and compete. We headed up to Pataskala last Thursday afternoon for our practice round and we were treated to some beautiful weather (last year at this tournament we faced some treacherous winds, so we were hoping for better conditions this time around.) While the forecast for the weekend looked good, we awoke on Friday morning to some very rainy, windy conditions. The rain was supposed to stop well before our first tee time, but the radar kept changing and pushing it back more and more. Eventually, tee times were delayed for 30 minutes, which turned out to be HUGE as the rain stopped right before we began our rounds. If you know anything about golf, you know that trying to keep everything dry is a struggle and once your clubs get wet, they lose grip and are very hard to dry them out during the round, even if the rain stops. So this break in the weather shifted the course of the whole day for us.

Though the rain stopped, we still faced constant 20 mph winds throughout the day, which made some holes very tough. Jared, however, managed to tear it up, despite the conditions, as he finished Day 1 at one-over par (73) to sit in a tie for second. As for the rest of us, we struggled a bit as Isaak Ramsey was the only other Yellow Jacket who was able to post a number in the 70's with a 79. Ben posted an 81 while Isaac Wood and Hayden both posted 82's. Carter scored an 83 while Cody, Rob, who made his collegiate debut, myself, Kyle, and Jake rounded out the back with scores of 84, 85, 87, 88, 90, respectively. Following the round, we went out to eat at Red Robin where we watched Tiger make his Friday run at the Masters. We had the entire restaurant watching as we were going crazy every time Tiger hit a good shot or made a birdie. Following dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Wood treated us to some Graeter's ice cream that we all enjoyed very much. We were also treated to a show, as when we pulled into Graeter's, we were soon followed by three police officers and three fire trucks zooming past us to a house just down the street. We watched for about five minutes trying to figure out what was going on, but we eventually gave up with our theories and went to get our ice cream.

Saturday brought us some perfect weather for a Spring round of golf, which proved to be true as we shot our lowest round of the year as a team with a score of 296! Isaac Wood led the way with a great score of one-under par 71. Jared kept consistent with another score of 73, putting him in a tie for third for the tournament. This finish was good enough to earn him a spot on the All-Tournament Team! Congrats Jared! Cody turned it around from Friday as well as he posted a score of 74. Kyle and I also dropped 10 strokes from the previous day with scores of 78 and 77, respectively. Hayden shot his career average, once again, at 78. Shout out to Hayden for always turning in a score between 76-78. Consistency is good. Ben and Isaak both turned in scores of 80, while Rob turned in an 82, Jake an 83 (might I mention he shot 47 on the front nine and completely flipped the script on the back nine with a score of 36), and Carter with an 86. We want to give a HUGE shout out to our two seniors who competed in their final tournament this past week, Carter and Jake. Thank you both so much for all you have done for the program and for being great teammates and friends. We are gonna miss you guys for sure!

Tune back in next week for the final BLOG of the year as we head back down to Kentucky to compete in the G-MAC Tournament. Thanks for following us all season, and as always, God Bless and Go Jackets!


April 1, 2019

WELCOME BACK Jacket Fans!!!

It has been a while since the last blog and we have been putting in some WORK during the off season. We made it our goal to be better prepared mentally and physically for our tournaments in the spring, which led to us spending a lot more time in the gym than some of us were used to (thanks Coach Bowen). We have been working hard as a team and we have had some awesome moments growing closer as a team and as friends.

We kicked our spring season off the right way by heading down to Florida for a week during Spring Break where we had AMAZING weather, other than a few chilly mornings. The trip gave us an opportunity to “knock some of the rust off” of our games and relearn how to hit a golf ball (kidding…kind of). We were blessed to be able to play some incredible courses during our stay and had a lot of time to just chill and hang out, which was very refreshing.

We also want to give a HUGE shout out to those who donated to our fund raising campaign and made it possible for us to fly down there instead of trekking for 15 hours in a van with loads of luggage. You guys helped us out more than you know and we are very grateful. The trip went very smooth, other than a few minor debacles. Kyle “Tillingtwirl” misplaced his boarding pass on the way down before we even got through the security checkpoint. Luckily, they were able to reprint him one very easily and it wasn’t a big deal. We still gave him a hard time about it and coach didn’t let him live it down. I somehow managed to leave my wallet at the Chinese buffet we ate at our last night before we came home. This resulted in a minor freak out as it had my ID and some other valuables in it. Luckily, Coach Bowen was kind enough to take me on the two hour round trip back to the restaurant to get it, but unfortunately it resulted in me having to miss out on kicking the rest of the team’s butts in mini golf right before we headed to the airport. All-in-all, we had a great time.

We made our first tournament appearance of the spring last weekend down in Kentucky at the UK Big Blue Course. Isaac, Hayden, Jared, Cody, and Kyle made up the Top 5 for this tournament based off of our scores from Spring Break. While the weather wasn’t quite ideal, there’s not much else you can expect in mid-March with chilly, rainy days. Hayden had himself a solid week to kick the year off with scores of 76-77. There was some very good competition in the field, however, as more than 15 players shot under par in the first round, with the University of Indianapolis leading the way with a team score of 281 (-7). Jared also had a solid tournament with rounds of 79-76. Kyle also played well with scores of 80-76. Cody and Isaac weren’t quite themselves last week as they posted 84-77 and 87-80, respectively.

We are looking to have a strong tournament this week down in Nashville at the Trevecca Invitational. You can follow LIVE RESULTS HERE! 

Tune in next week for the next BLOG!! Sure is good to be back, and as always, God Bless and Go Jackets!


October 21, 2018

Welcome back once again, Jacket fans!

This past week, we hosted our home fall invitational at Country Club of the North. The weather on the first day was not ideal as it was cold and rainy. Our scores somewhat reflected that, however, after round 1 we sat in fourth place out of 11 teams. Jared led the way in round 1 with a solid 76 followed by Hayden who was the only other Jacket to post a round in the 70's with a 79. Isaac and Cody both posted 80 for the day and I followed with a disappointing 82. As for the individuals competing, Kyle and Carter both posted an 82 while Ben and Jake struggled quite a bit posting 87 and 86, respectively.

Round 2 was delayed an hour due to frost on the ground, as was still frigid cold when we tee’d off at 10 a.m. at a blistering 32 degrees. However, it turned out to be a beautiful day in the mid-50's with not much wind. Cody had a career day, posting a 2-under par 70, while even bogeying his last two holes of the day. This score was good enough to tie for low round of the tournament, but kept him just outside of the Top 5, finishing tied for 7th. Isaac turned in a 77, his first round in the 70's in a few tournaments, which was encouraging as he and four others were nearing their trip to compete at the NCCAA Championship. Jared posted an 80, while Hayden and I struggled posting 83 and 85. The individuals struggled a bit as well as Ben led the way with an 82, with Kyle, Carter, and Jake posting rounds of 85, 87, and 91 respectively.

We ended up tying for fourth place as a team as McKendree University took home the trophy after an impressive tournament. Props to them for a great team performance! This tournament wrapped up the fall season for many of us, with only Jared, Cody, Hayden, Isaac, and Ben traveling to Florida this week to compete in the NCCAA Championship. You can follow the scores on Golfstat to stay up to date on how the guys are doing.

Next week will wrap up the BLOG for this semester, with results from the NCCAA and a recap of our fall season. Thanks for tuning in and, as always, God Bless and Go Jackets!


October 14, 2018

Well, our season is quickly coming to an end. With only two weeks of the season left, we are looking to finish strong heading into the off-season with some confidence for the spring.

As I said in last week’s edition, six of us headed up north to Tiffin to compete in the Kyle Ryman Memorial tournament. This tournament was filled with good competition, including Findlay, Tiffin, and Saginaw Valley State. The course itself played much longer than normal as we arrived to standing water in nearly every fairway, resulting in us getting no roll on any of our shots. This basically means that wherever our ball landed, that is where it came to rest.

Despite the conditions, several good scores were put out there, including two very solid rounds on Day 1 from freshman Cody Cogdill who fired 75-74 to remain at five over par after two rounds. Hayden also played solid on Day 1 as he shot 78-77 with Jared close behind with 78-78. Isaac and I struggled a bit as he shot 80-81 on the day and I posted a rough 83 in the first round followed by a 77. Ben Sheard who was playing as an individual also had a very solid day as he fired 75-77. However, these scores put us near the bottom half of the pack, leading Alderson Broaddus and Malone.

Our goal for Day 2 was to not fall on the leaderboard, and we managed to do that with some decent scores. Jared led the way on Day 2 with a 73, accompanied by a 75 from Hayden and a 79 from myself along with another 81 from Isaac. Cody struggled after a good Day 1 and posted an 83. Ben also followed up his Day 1 performance with an 81. We were able to take a lot away from this tournament as far as our games were concerned.

Heading into our home tournament this week on our home course at Country Club of the North, we are looking forward to competing and hoping to notch our first win of the season. Rounding out the top five for this tournament are Jared, Isaac, Hayden, Cody, and myself. Fortunately, the rest of the guys will be competing as individuals so everyone will have a chance to compete this week.

Coach Bowen also announced the five that will be traveling to Florida this coming Friday to compete in the NCCAA National Tournament in Palm Coast, consisting of Jared, Isaac, Hayden, Cody, and Ben. Make sure to pray for traveling mercies for the guys as they will be making the long drive, as well as prayers during their stay.

Thanks for tuning in once again! Make sure to stay updated with our home tournament Monday and Tuesday and #BackTheJackets! We would love to have as many people out there to support us as possible!!

See you guys next week, and as always, God Bless and Go Jackets!


October 7, 2018

Another week of school and practice has come and gone. It’s hard to believe we are nearly half way through the semester already. Our schedules are beginning to become quite tight as we all try to balance our school work, studying, maintain a sleep schedule and social life, while staying on top of our golf games. We had another week off from competition this week, however, we spent the week prepping for the Kyle Ryman Memorial tournament hosted by Tiffin on October 8-9.

Last Tuesday we held our B-team qualifier constituted of Carter, Jake, Isaak, Kyle and myself. The top two from this qualifier would move on to play in a final spot qualifier against Ben, since Coach Bowen decided to bring six players to this tournament rather than the normal five, with one playing as an individual. Isaak won the B-team qualifier and Kyle and I actually tied so coach decided we would have a four-man final playoff for two spots, with the winner being on the A-team and second place playing as an individual.

Unfortunately, Isaak had an unlikely run-in with the concrete on Thursday as he wiped out on his long board, ultimately leaving himself with a broken shoulder, sprained right wrist, a laceration on his eye that required 11 stitches, and a nasty goose egg on his head. Please continue to keep Isaak in your prayers for a speedy recovery with as little pain as possible!

This unfortunate circumstance left Kyle, Ben, and I in the final spot qualifier. While it was a tight match all the way through, Ben ended up squeaking by Kyle by one stroke while I bested Ben by two strokes. So Isaac, Jared, Hayden, Cody, Ben and I made the trip up North to Tiffin, Ohio on Sunday to compete in a two-day, 36-18 hole tournament.

Also this past week, we continued our team Bible study tradition as we have been meeting this semester every other Thursday morning, bright and early at 7:30 a.m. and have been led by our team chaplain, Nick Boucher. This semester we are focusing on "resilience" and how to fight the temptations we face every day. I will continue to keep you updated on our meetings and provide more in-depth detail about our discussions in weeks to come.

That’s all for this week! Thanks again for tuning in and, as always, God Bless and Go Jackets!


October 2, 2018

Welcome back, Jacket fans!

This past week, the team had some time off from competition and focused on practicing and getting better for our upcoming CU Invitational and the NCCAA Nationals in October. To help keep our games sharp, we had some "inter-squad scrimmages" in which we competed against each other in nine-hole, match play events. Kyle and myself took on the roommate duo of Isaak and Cody to start the week off, in which the roommates were able to take us down after a very close match ending in a one up victory for them.

The next day, Carter and I took on Jake and Hayden, which ended in a very similar result, when Jake practically clinched the win for their team with a long birdie putt on the seventh hole ending in a 2&1 victory for them (this means they were two holes up with one hole to play). Jared also took on Isaak Ramsey in a singles match with Jared showing some solid form shooting one-under par and winning the match 3&2.

Isaac and Kyle then competed the next day with Isaac taking home the win 2&1. Cody finished off his week going 2-0 in matches beating Jared 3&1. The last match of the week belonged to Hayden and Carter who beat Isaac playing by himself 4&2. It was nice to be able to compete a little bit with this long lull in our season.

Practice this week consisted of a range session with three different stations where we competed in "mini-games" against each other, once again. The first station was H-O-R-S-E, where one player would hit a shot, and if the next person didn’t match it, they would receive a letter. The next station consisted of drivers only, where we challenged ourselves to see how many good drives we could hit in a row. Jared, who rarely misses a fairway, hit seven perfect drives in a row and took home the title and quoted, "this is just too easy."

The final station was tricky as it involved our wedge game. To start it off, we had to land our ball in a trash can from 28 yards away, which is much tougher than you might think. Once we accomplished that feat, we had to work our way up to 100 yards in 10 yard increments, by hitting a 10-foot wide circle, and then finish the drill by landing it in the trash can again. Robbie, who is out for the fall season with a torn ACL, has only been able to work on his wedge game recently, so he was the man to beat. Leave it to fate, he was the only one able to complete the drill in the allotted 15 minute time slot. The only others to land the ball in the trash can included Isaac and myself.

Thanks again for tuning in and we look forward to the rest of our fall season. The Top Six travel to Tiffin this weekend, so we will keep you posted.

As always, God Bless and Go Jackets!


September 25, 2018

Welcome back to the BLOG!

Another week has come and gone and with it came another tournament and a few practices. To kick off the week, the Top 5 headed to Columbus, Indiana to compete in the G-MAC Fall Invitational. The team for this trip consisted of Jared, Isaac, Cody, Hayden, and Ben. The guys were welcomed in Columbus by a friend of Coach Bowen who opened up his home for the team to stay at during the trip. Following the practice round Sunday, the guys were treated to an evening sunset cruise on a pontoon boat owned by the host. Needless to say, the team enjoyed some relaxing time before teeing it up the next morning.

This tournament was unique in the fact that it was a two-day 54-hole tournament, which meant 27 holes each day. The course itself was comprised of three different nines, in which they played each nine once each day. Once again, Jared "The Terminator" Hoelzen led the team in scoring with rounds of 75-74-74 to take 17th-place. Freshman Cody Cogdill followed up with rounds of 78-78-75. Hayden James got off to a solid start on day one with a round of 77 followed up by an even par, 36 on the last 9 holes of the day. On day two, he started off solid with a 38 to total a second round 74, but struggled a bit on the final 18 turning in an 81. Isaac Wood got off to a bit of a rough start with an opening 84, but bounced back well and put together two rounds in the 70's, including a 77 and a 79. Ben Sheard also had his fair share of struggles in the first two rounds, but managed to get one in the 70's in the final round with a 79. Once again, it wasn’t the play the team was looking for and still have some areas to improve in as a whole.

One of our main themes for the year is "mental toughness," which is an obvious trait required in golf, especially in these long, multiple-round days. Coach Bowen put together a few drills at practice this week to help us implement mental toughness into our games. The first of which consisted of all 11 guys on the team having to hit what we consider a "perfect wedge shot" from 100 yards at the same time. We FINALLY accomplished this feat after about 15 rounds of attempts. The second mental toughness drill of the week came at our range practice on Thursday. Coach split us up into two teams, where we went head-to-head against a player from the other team to see who could hit the straightest, most solid drive. Whoever coach deemed to have hit the best shot received a point for their team. However, there was a twist. We could do and say whatever we wanted in order to distract the person who was hitting. Hayden seemed to be especially fond of this drill as he could insult whoever was hitting (I must say, he had quite a few remarks up his sleeve that he seemed to have already written down somewhere.) The team consisting of Kyle, Isaak, Jared, Carter, and Hayden won 4-1, as I was the only one able to earn a point for the team on a shot that was….less bad…than Carter’s. To no surprise, it was quite hard to keep a straight face and hit a good shot while being roasted by fellow teammates.

*Side Note…Kyle earned a new nickname (44-31) at our tournament in Belpre last week. The name itself is pretty self-explanatory as he opened his front nine with a frustrating eight over par 44, but flipped a switch on the back nine as he birdied four (!!!) of his first five holes to turn in a (-4) 31!!!

We have a couple weeks off before our next tournament so we will keep you posted on our practices and Bible studies.

Thanks for tuning in once again, and as always, God Bless and Go Jackets!


September 17, 2018

WHATS UP GOLF FANS!? My name is Mitchell Creamer and it is my privilege to serve as this year’s BLOGGER for the golf team. A few things you may like to know about me: I’m a sophomore Sports Business major and I’m from Washington Court House, OH (about 25 minutes down the road from Cedarville). Throughout this year, my goal is to help you get to know the golf team a little bit better and give you an inside look into the life of a Division II college golfer.

So, without further ado, let’s meet the 2018-19 Cedarville Men’s Golf Team:
 

This year has gotten off to a fast start, as we have already had three tournaments and some funny moments already. We traveled to Ohio Dominican Classic in Blacklick, OH for our first tournament of the year, which some of us dread, because it’s a one-day, 36-hole tournament, which basically means we play ALL DAY. That’s a lot of walking. However, Jared "The Terminator" Hoelzen didn’t seem to mind it as he fired a career-best for 36 holes at 2 under par with scores of 73, 69!!! His performance was good enough to earn solo third in a field of over 80 players! Way to go Jared! Sophomore Isaac Wood also had a solid start after an impressive freshman season as he shot 75, 77 to tie for 27th. Unfortunately, the rest of us didn’t quite bring our "A game" as we left quite a few strokes out on the course. We took a lot from our first tournament and were eager to get to practice to get our games where they need to be in order for the team to be competitive.

Our second tournament of the year was the Ohio Cup, hosted by Findlay, who has been very solid in past years. Only the top six went to this tournament (five for the team score and one playing individually), including Isaac, Jared, Cody (making his starting five debut), Jake, and Ben, along with Hayden who played as an individual. Again, Jared and Isaac paced the team in scoring as the other struggled a bit in rainy, windy conditions throughout the day (keep in mind this was another one-day 36-hole event). Isaac turned in two solid scores of 75 and Jared followed up his first round 80 with an impressive 73. Again, the team took some positives away from the tournament and figured out what they needed to work on.

This past weekend, the B-team made the trip to Belpre, OH to play in the Highlanders Cup. This trip was rounded out by Carter, Jake, Isaak, Kyle, and myself. When we arrived at the course, we found ourselves in what seemed to be Hillbilly Village, as the course was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by hills and trees. We got a bit of a break as, even though this was yet ANOTHER one-day, 36-hole event, we got to ride in carts!!! That was huge considering each hole was either up or down a hill. To add to the… magnificent… scenery (sarcasm), the course was in one of the worst shapes any of us have seen in a long time. Despite the conditions, we still had a job to do and we still had to compete on the same course as everyone else. SO, we accepted the challenge and put together a pretty decent first round as everyone on the team broke 80. However, a few of us struggled a bit during the second as Kyle and I were the only two under 80.

(*side note. One of the golfers in Carter’s group ran his cart into a tree, snapping the front axle in half, leaving the front right wheel perpendicular to the wheel well. Carter seemed to get quite a kick out of it when telling us the story following our round.*)

After three events, we definitely have some work to do to get to where we need to be. On the bright side of things, the team received an automatic bid to play in the NCCAA National Tournament in Florida in October! The top five will be making the trip down in October, so we better figure out how to play golf by then (comedy intended).

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to follow our A-team as they are competing in Columbus, Indiana this week at the G-MAC Fall Invitational.

See you guys next week and God bless!


Mitchell Creamer is a sophomore from Washington Court House, Ohio. He is in his second year with the Yellow Jackets and is a Sports Business major.