New, fresh, green. No, this is not a description of the North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill., site of next week’s Windon Memorial Classic hosted by the Northwestern men’s golf team. It’s a description of the actual golf team.
This year’s Wildcats men’s golf team is part-tested and part-inexperienced. The team, under the direction of eight-year head coach Pat Goss, has an even balance of upper and underclassmen.
“We have a lot of young players on this team,” said Goss. “And right now our only goal is to keep improving everyday and come ready to play.”
The Cats stumbled out of the gates, placing 13th overall out of 15 teams at the Inverness Intercollegiate Invitational in Toledo, Ohio, on September 19-20. The field included six teams ranked in the Top 25 of the Golf Digest Coaches’ poll.
“Our season is very new. We have played in one event in which we got off to a slow start, and we have been practicing and preparing for our home event next week,” Goss said. “It is still very early because golf has the longest season of any college sport.”
But there were bright spots for NU. In the first tournament, junior Dillon Dougherty and senior Casey Strunk stood out form the team. Dougherty came out of nowhere to shoot a 9-over, 222 to finish fourth overall. Strunk shot a 16-over 229 to put him in a tie for thirty-second.
“Dillon played a great tournament in Toledo,” Goss said. “He has improved a lot and has a new added confidence, and he will help us a lot this year. Casey is also having a great year, and we are also expecting good things from him.”
The Wildcats will host their biggest event of the fall season on October 6-7, the Windon Memorial Classic. NU is the defending team champion and also holds the defending individual champion, senior Tom Johnson. The Cats will be competing against 17 other schools, seven of which finished in the final Top-50 coaches’ poll.
“[The Windon Memorial Classic] was the only tournament we as a team won last year as well as the only tournament I myself won, so it is great to have a chance to defend our championship,” Johnson said. “We are very familiar and comfortable with the course, which is probably what allowed us to win it last year, and we are excited and really looking forward to it.”
