March 19, 2020
Hey Jacket Fans!
We have A LOT to discuss in this BLOG! First, I want to apologize for not keeping you updated about the start of our season. The past few weeks have been CRAZY busy trying to get ahead on assignments and take midterms before our Spring Break trip, not to mention the events that have taken place over the past week alone. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it!
Let’s start by talking about how incredible our Spring Break trip was! We left Cedarville on Friday, February 28th at 3:00 p.m. to begin our 15-hour journey down to Florida that would take place over the next two days. We elected to drive this year for two main reasons: one was due to the fact that we had a tournament scheduled in North Carolina that would be hit on the way back from Florida; the other reason was to save money so that we would have more money for our other housing endeavors while on this trip. We took three mini-vans and had two designated drivers per van. In my group’s van, Jared and I took turns driving, while Isaac and Rob alternated in another van, with Coach Bowen driving his vehicle for the entirety of the trip.
Late that night, we arrived at our hotel in Tennessee where we would rest up to complete the final 8 1/2 hours of our trip the next day. We left the hotel at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and continued our trek down to warm weather. After lunch at Five Guys and a driver switch, we took on the last stretch of the drive and arrived to our house for the week at around 5:30 p.m. We were welcomed by warm weather and a MASSIVE house with enough beds to sleep all 11 of us comfortably. The house also had a heated pool in the screened in room out back that we got MORE than enough use out of.
After settling in that night, we had our first team meeting where coach reinforced our two goals for the week: prepare for our spring season, and get to know each other better. This ultimately led to two of us being put on the hot seat each night during our team meetings where we would share our role model, a life highlight, and a life hardship. Though I won’t share specifics as we vowed to keep it all between us, I will say that we definitely got to know each other better through our stories and testimonies of the hardships in each of our lives that God brought us through.
Sunday morning we headed to Heritage Church, the same church we attended last year where we met up with Pastor Bill, who just so happened to be a member at one of the courses we played two times. That afternoon, we headed to Eaglebrooke Golf Club, a course in which we were familiar with, as we played it twice last year! There, we were able to get our first swings of the year on actual growing grass! (Hitting on grass is vastly different than the turf mats we were used to hitting on at our practice facility). Once we got our bearings on the driving range and the putting green, we headed to the first tee for our first round of the year!
This round was specifically focused on knocking the rust off from our long off season when we weren’t able to play any golf outside, and I will say, we were all a bit rusty. Mind you, this was our first full day in Florida and the weather was in the mid 60's, which was the coldest day of the week. However, after coming from Ohio, we were more than loving it! After the round, we headed to the crowd favorite dinner place from last year, Mission Barbecue. To say we were excited was an understatement. After a delicious dinner, we headed back to our house and began our nightly routine of hopping in the pool and playing Marco-Polo with the whole team. This was one of the times each day that we were really able to spend some quality time with each other and get to know each other a little better.
The next two days entailed much of the same: wake up early, get to the course to play 18 holes, practice, go to dinner, go back to the house, relax in the pool, and finally have our team meeting. The courses we played over those three days included Lone Palm, where we got to play with and talk to Brad Bryant, who was a former PGA Tour winner. We want to thank him for spending the day with us and giving us some insider tips as to what it takes to be a great golfer. Tuesday we played Grasslands, the course I mentioned earlier that Pastor Bill helped us get on, as it is a private club. This course seemed to be a collective favorite, as the layout and conditions of the course were impeccable.
Wednesday began our first official round of qualifying to decide who would be on the A-Team for our tournament in North Carolina. We played a course called Pine Barrens at World Woods. This courses tested us to say the least. It was a long course that required accuracy off the tee and hitting greens in the correct spots, as the greens had a lot of undulation (very sloped). Unfortunately, none of us were able to post a good score, as the course got the better of us.
Thursday, we took a day off from playing golf to go watch the pros play golf! It just so happened that the Arnold Palmer Invitational was happening in Orlando the same week we were down there, so coach was nice enough to get us tickets to the first round of the tournament. We were able to pick up several tips simply from watching the players warm up and during the round. Several of us also got some sweet merchandise from Bay Hill (where the tournament was held) to remember the day. Following the round, we headed to the Universal City Walk where we had dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. *No alcohol was consumed!!!* After dinner, we spent some time hanging out and walking around and exploring the over-priced Chocolate Factory. Isaac, the social butterfly, struck up a conversation with the guy working at the counter, who then talked him into buying three pieces of chocolate for more than $10. Being the nice guy he is, Isaac offered us all a small bite, and I will say that the chocolate was a bit over-hyped. All in all, we had a great day off from playing and were eager to get back at it the next day.
Friday rounded out our time playing in Florida as we headed back to Grasslands for the second round of qualifying. Scores were much better than the previous round, however, we still had some work to do heading into our first tournament in just three days. After that round, we headed to BD’s Mongolian Grill for an early dinner as our last meal in Florida. We spent the rest of the evening in the pool and packing for the nine-hour road trip to Wilson, North Carolina the next day.
Saturday, we left at around 6:30 a.m. and headed north. Once we arrived in North Carolina, we headed straight to the course for the last hour of daylight to get used to the greens that we would be playing in the tournament. After practice, we headed to Moe’s Southwest Grill for dinner. Many of us had never had it before and we were more than pleased with our experience there.
Sunday morning, we headed to Raleigh Road Baptist Church before our practice round later that day. After a great sermon about the Sermon on the Mount, we headed to the course to get to know it before the tournament. The course was very different from those that we had played in Florida, as it was very much a placement course. It was imperative to be precise off the tee, even if that meant hitting a 4 iron rather than driver. The course had a lot of out of bounds around it, which made it even more important to keep the ball in play in order to avoid a two stroke penalty.
Monday was the first round of the tournament, and to say we were a little rusty was an understatement. It’s always tough coming off such a long break from playing competitively to bring you’re A-game in the first round. Isaac Wood shot the best round for us with a 76, while the rest of us failed to break 80. Kyle and Cody were the only other two on the brink as they both posted first round scores of 80.
Tuesday brought much of the same, as we were blessed with great weather conditions both days. Both tournament rounds were about 70 degrees and sunny for most of the day, which kept us nice and comfortable during the long rounds. We once again struggled as a team, however several guys improved from the first day. Cody and Ben both posted a 77, while Jared brought in the low round of the day for the team with a 76. Isaac once again was solid and finished with a 79 to cap off a good first tournament back for the junior. The rest of us had our fair share of struggles once again, whether we got some bad breaks, or simply didn’t play our best golf.
Following the round, we made a B-Line back to Cedarville as we had an 8 1/2 hour drive in front of us (we got back before curfew so none of us got fined :). We were exhausted by the time we got back, and that was the last normalcy we would experience up to this point.
Wednesday, everything changed. That morning in chapel, Dr. White announced that we would be moving to online learning within the next few days and we were being asked to leave our dorms. At that point, we were still planning on playing the rest of our spring season, so we didn’t know what that meant for us. We were given the option to stay in our dorms or we could go home for a week, as we had another tournament planned for the following Monday in Nashville. Coach let us decide what we wanted to do, as long as we had access to practice facilities for the next week. However, as things rapidly changed, we were informed early Friday morning that our spring season was canceled and we all had to go home. This brought a whirlwind of emotions over all of us. For Hayden and Jared, this meant that their competitive golf careers were finished, in the worst way possible. A devastating end to a season that was only just beginning.
Seniors, this part is for you. Your leadership throughout your time on this team hasn’t gone unnoticed. We all appreciate the time and commitment you put in to make not only yourselves better, but our team better as well. We won’t soon forget all the memories we made together on road trips, practices, or even in just spending time together. While we know this isn’t the ending anyone expected, we know that God’s plan is greater than our own and you can trust that. I want to wish the best of luck to both of you in whatever your future looks like. Hayden, thanks for being someone we could always look to for a laugh, and someone we could always count on to post a 78, no matter the day. Jared, thanks for always striving for perfection, even if you have the most repeatable swing anyone has ever seen, and thanks for showing us all how to consistently stick a 3 wood to eight feet. We will miss both of you as a part of this team.
I also want to thank everyone who has been a part of this team from the outside. Your support and loyalty is something we are more than grateful for, and we couldn’t do some of the things we do without you guys.
This is Mitchell Creamer signing off for now.
God Bless and Go Jackets!!
Oct. 22, 2019
Another week in the books! This past week was PACKED full of golf and mid-terms. Through the stress of studying and homework, we played in our very own Cedarville Invitational this past Monday and Tuesday. We look forward to this tournament every year, as it is the only tournament all year that we play on our own turf, so we were looking to defend our home course. Not only that, but it is one of the few tournaments that all eleven members of the team get to compete together, and against each other. With that being said, we were hoping to play some good golf.
FORTUNATELY, we were able to do just that, and bring home the victory! Cody, Caleb, Jared, Hayden, and Isaac made up our starting five and played some very solid golf on a course that was playing tough for both days. They had the pins tucked in some difficult spots, making it difficult for us to get good looks at birdies. Nonetheless, the two seniors made the most of their final home tournament, as Jared decided he was just gonna go ahead and win the whole thing, while Hayden decided to take a Top 5 spot overall as well. Both shot 74 (+2) on Day 1 to share the lead with each other. The terminator pulverized the field on Day 2, shooting an even par 72 to win outright by 4 strokes, while HJ fired a very respectable 77 to claim fourth place and a spot on the all-tournament team. We are very proud of the way both seniors are playing this year, and we look forward to them (hopefully) leading us to an NCCAA championship this week down in Florida.
As for the rest of the guys, Ramsauce, playing as the #1 seed on the B-team, fired the next best score of 75 followed by a second round 79 to cap off a tremendous fall for the sophomore. Ramsey had a breakout fall season and we will continue to look to him for some good scores in the future. A handful of us posted a 79, including Woody, Cody, and Mitch squared (if I ever refer to Mitch Jeffe and myself in the same sentence in the future, I’ll use this). Caleb managed to shoot an 80 after getting off to a rough start on his first five holes, and followed it up with a 76 in round two, as he got off to a similar start as he did in round one, but managed to battle back a little better this time. Kyle also posted an 80, followed by Ben with an 82 and Rob with an 86. Rob fought back on day two to post a career-best round of 75 and finish his fall season in style. Cody and Isaac posted their second round scores at 76 strokes a piece, clinching the victory and beating out Ohio Dominican by seven strokes.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather for both days and we were all very grateful to be out of class for two days and play the great game of golf, that can be both calming and frustrating at the same time. Regardless, we are looking to take our success into Nationals this week and bring home a trophy! Be sure to wish the five down in Florida good luck this week and follow along on
golfstat.com to keep up with the live scoring for the event.
Thanks for tuning in for another week and as always, God bless and Go Jackets!
Oct. 14, 2019
Hey Jacket Fans!
This past week, we competed at the Kyle Ryman Memorial tournament hosted by Tiffin University. There was some really good competition, as several of the schools in our conference were there. The Top 5 who traveled to the tournament consisted of Cody, Jared, Hayden, Isaac, Caleb, and Mitch Jeffe, who competed as an individual. The format consisted of 36 holes on Day One, and 18 holes the following day. Cody got off to a hot start, firing a -1 (71) on his first 18 holes to put him in a tie for second place. He followed it up with a 76 to sit inside the Top 10 following Day One.
Woody, Caleb, and HJ followed suit with scores of 76-76, 77-73, and 78-76, respectively. Jared had a tough round one, but came right back with an even par, 72. Mitch struggled a bit in his first round as well, but fought back with a solid round of 76. The team score after Day One was 302-297, which was our best 36 hole score of the year so far.
Day Two brought some struggles, as only two Jackets managed to break 80. Cody shot 77 to round out a very solid tournament for the sophomore, and HJ continued to do what HJ does, shooting a round of 79. Cody finished tied for 13th in a very tough field at +8 for the tournament. The rest of the guys were in the low 80's, as we posted our highest team score of the year at 318. Our 917 total placed us fifth out of nine schools.
We are back in action this week for our home invitational at our very own Country Club of the North. Check Twitter and Instagram for updates.
The guys traveling to Florida for NCCAA Nationals head out on Saturday, so be sure to pray for safe travels and a lot of success!
Thanks for tuning in once again, and as always, God bless and Go Jackets!
Oct. 8, 2019
What’s up, Jacket Fans!?
We are currently in the month of OCTOBER already! Time is flying this school year and as we get set to begin the second half of our fall season, competing in the Kyle Ryman Memorial tournament in Tiffin, Ohio, and of course, our home tournament at the Country Club of the North.
The past two weeks have been fairly slow in terms of tournaments as we had a two-week break, but we have still been busy getting after it in our second qualifier of the fall, consisting of 54 holes over the course of last week. The Top 5 qualifying scores would make up the A-team for the Tiffin tournament and our home tournament, though everyone will be playing in it. Some good scores were posted throughout the week, meaning some good golf had to be played to find a way into the Top 5. As a team, we have been playing much better this fall than we were last year.
Cool Guy Cody automatically qualified for the ensuing tournaments as he played well enough in the first two tournaments of the year, leaving four other spots up for grabs. Caleb Stimdawg played really solid all throughout qualifying, finishing with a -2 (34) for his last nine holes to lock up the #2 seed. Isaac Woody found his rhythm this fall after getting off to a bit of a slow start, finishing his final 18 holes at one over par to lock up his spot in the Top 5 as well. The final two spots were so tight that it came down to a coach’s decision on who would be traveling to Tiffin. Hayden James and Mitch Jeffe tied for their 54 hole scores and Jared and Isaak Ramsauce also tied only one or two strokes behind them. Coach elected to go with experience, taking Hayden and Jared as the final two. Mitch Jeffe will also be traveling to Tiffin to compete as an individual.
Oh yeah, did I mention that WE QUALIFIED FOR NATIONALS AGAIN?? We are heading back to Palm Coast to compete in the NCCAA National Championship in late October! This past qualifier has huge implications as to who will be traveling down to Florida to compete, as it is getting very close.
Thanks for reading once again and be sure to follow the team at Tiffin on
golfstat.com for live updates as well as our home tournament October 14-15!!
See you guys next week, and as always, God bless and Go Jackets!!
Sept. 23, 2019
Halfway through the fall season already???? It’s hard to believe we only have three tournaments left this fall! Thus far, we have competed in three events with two third-place finishes and one tenth-place finish this past week in the G-MAC Fall Preview against some very good competition. Remaining on our schedule, we have the Kyle Ryman Memorial at Tiffin, the Cedarville Invitational at our home course - the Country Club of the North - and the NCCAA National Tournament down in Florida, pending we qualify as a team.
Last week, Isaak, Cody, Caleb, Jared, and Hayden traveled down to Owensboro, Kentucky to compete in the G-MAC Fall Preview, composed of all the teams in our conference. Amidst the very tough competition, Jared Hoelzen went on to post two very good rounds of 73-75 (+4) to tie for 20th against the best players in the conference. We are happy to see “the Terminator” returning back to his usual, dominant self on the course. “Cool Guy Cody” also had a solid week, turning in 77-74 (+7) to tie for 28th place. Nicknameless freshman, Caleb Stimmel, came in with 79-75 to finish at +10 and place 35th, while HJ and Isaak Ramsauce struggled a bit, posting scores of 79-81 and 79-82, respectively.
Overall, we didn’t play our best golf as a team and need to improve by spring time to have a chance in the conference tournament in April. We finished with team scores of 308-305 to finish in 10th-place. We know that if we come out and play our best golf, we can compete with any team in this conference.
This week, we begin our second round of qualifying to decide who will play at Tiffin and our home tournament as a member of the A-Team. With a few weeks off in between tournaments, we will be looking to improve to give us a shot at capturing a few wins as we near the end of our fall season, hopefully before heading to Florida in October.
Thanks for tuning in for another edition of the Men’s Golf Blog and we hope you will continue to stick with us as we strive to win tournaments and compete FOR HIM.
As always, God bless and Go Jackets!
Sept. 16, 2019
Jacket Fans!
It’s hard to believe we are already half way through September! We have been busy getting right into the action, competing in our first two tournaments of the year. On September 3rd, the whole team made the one hour travel to Wedgewood Golf Club in Powell, OH, just outside of Dublin, OH, for a one day, 36 hole event. For those that don’t know, usually only five guys travel to tournaments to compete, so we enjoy taking advantage of the tournaments in which we all get to compete and have the whole team together.
We got off to a pretty good start in our first tournament of the year, placing 3rd as a team out of 6 teams. Isaak Ramsey lit it up in qualifying, shooting -2 over 36 holes to claim the #1 seed on the team for the first tournament. He continued his hot play, going on to shoot 76-74 (+6) to tie for 4th place overall. Jared Hoelzen, one of our seniors had a rough first round of 81 but battles back to shoot (+2) 74 in his second round of the day, finishing tied for 18th. Rounding out the A-Team, Hayden James shot 77-79 to tie for 20th, Cody Cogdill shot 77-80 to tie for 23rd, and Isaac Wood shot 81-79 to tie for 29th.
The B-team had some solid performances as well. Leading the way for the B-team was Mitchell Creamer, with scores of 79-77 to tie for 20th, followed closely by Caleb Stimmel who shot 83 followed by an impressive 74 from the freshman to tie for 23rd. Mitch Jeffe shot 82-78 to tie for 29th, Kyle Tillnghast shot 82-83 to tie for 43rd, Rob Harris shot 81-88 to tie for 54th, and Ben Sheard shot 88-84, placing 57th.
Our most recent tournament was the Ohio Cup in Findlay, Ohio last week. Due to the nature of our qualifying, the guys who made up the Top 5 were Isaak, Jared, Cody, Hayden, and Caleb. Again, the team had another good tournament, playing 36 holes in a day once again. The freshman, Caleb Stimmel, had a great tournament, turning in rounds of 72-76 (+4) to finish T-14. Cody also turned in some very good scores of 75-74 (+5) to finish 20th. Isaak Ramsey started off rough in the first round shooting 81, but came to play during the second round shooting a 3-under 69! Ramsey was two holes away from breaking the school record for a single round as he was six under through 16 holes, but unfortunately finished with bogey-double bogey. (The school record is 67 (-5) for 18 holes.) Nonetheless, Ramsey’s seven (!!!) birdies in his second round propelled him to a T-21 finish. Jared Hoelzen went 83-75 (+14) and Hayden shot 76-83 (+15) to finish T-51 and T-54, respectively. The team scores for the two rounds were 304-294 and were good enough for another third place finish out of 12 teams.
We are looking for another good week this week as the same five travel down to Kentucky Wesleyan to compete in the G-MAC Fall Preview at the Pearl Golf Club in Owensboro. Follow the scoring on Golfstat.com to keep up with the team on Tuesday!
We are looking forward to playing some more good golf and improving everyday to make it back to Nationals in Florida this fall!
Thanks for tuning in again, and as always, God bless and Go Jackets!
Sept. 2, 2019
Welcome back for yet ANOTHER year of the golf BLOG, Jacket fans!
My name is Mitchell Creamer and I am privileged to return and serve again as this year’s blogger for the golf team. The goal of this BLOG is to give an inside look into the lives of college golfers and what our weeks look like from an insider’s perspective.
So without further ado, let’s meet the 2019-20 Yellow Jacket golfers....
After graduating two seniors in May, we enter this 2019-20 season with two seniors once again:
Hayden James and
Jared Hoelzen. They will have some big shoes to fill after we said goodbye to Carter Ehms and Jacob Adams this past spring. They will be greatly missed in the program this year. Hayden and Jared are both coming off of their career best years and we know they will both play a big role this year.
In addition, we also added on two freshmen over the summer!
Caleb Stimmel is from Hilliard, OH and
Mitch Jeffe comes all the way from Buffalo, NY. We look for them to be able to contribute to our team’s success this year!
Also returning are sophomores
Cody Cogdill, who had a fantastic freshman year, playing in every event and shooting a season low -2 (70) in our home event,
Isaak Ramsey, who missed a lot of his freshman season due to injury, and
Rob Harris, who also missed the first half of the season coming off of an injury. Each one of them can contribute to the team as well this year.
Returning for the junior class is
Isaac Wood,
Benjamin Sheard,
Kyle Tillinghast, and myself,
Mitchell Creamer. Isaac has been one of our most consistent players over the past two years and we will look for that from him again this year. We also look forward to Ben, Kyle, and I stepping up our game from past years to help our team succeed and reach our goals for the year.
We tee off for the first time on Tuesday, September 3rd, at Wedgewood Golf Club in the Ohio Dominican University Classic. Keep up to date with live scoring on golfstat during our rounds and look for updates on our Twitter and Instagram (CUmensgolf). We are looking forward to a great season and are excited for you to enjoy this journey with us!
The next post will include results from ODU as well as the Ohio Cup next week. Thanks for tuning in, and as always, God Bless and Go Jackets!
Mitchell Creamer is a junior from Washington Court House, Ohio. He is in his third year with the Yellow Jackets and is a Sports Business Management major.
