GLENVIEW, Ill. — Confidence is a must in sports. While cockiness is a tragic flaw, confidence can carry an athlete to accomplish great feats.
Each member of Northwestern’s men’s golf team has this attribute coming into the biggest tournament of the season for them, the Windon Memorial Classic at North Shore Country Club. The tournament, played throughout today and tomorrow, is hosted by the Wildcats men’s golf team and has been won by the likes of Luke Donald from NU, 2003 British Open champion Ben Curtis from Kent State, and the No. 1 golfer in the world, Tiger Woods, when he was playing at Stanford.
NU is currently the defending champion and holds the individual champion as well, senior Tom Johnson.
“Since this is our home event, we have a different mentality than the other teams playing here,” Johnson said. “Other teams feel intimidated playing this nice of a course, but we play here once a week, so it’s really not that hard for us.”
Coming off a poor performance last week at the Inverness Intercollegiate Invitational in Toledo, Ohio, the Wildcats obviously would like to improve upon their 13th place finish.
“Coming into this week, we are more motivated to have a good showing in front of our home crowd and not to get embarrassed at our own tournament,” senior Casey Strunk said.
One golfer who is looking to build on his fantastic performance last week is junior Dillon Dougherty. Dougherty finished fourth at Inverness, which he hopes will help him today and tomorrow.
“It was really a big thrill for me last week,” Dougherty said. “It gave me a lot more confidence in myself, and I learned just to go out there and play. I know I am not necessarily going to go out and finish fourth every time, but I am much more confident in my game.”
Of the entire field of 17 teams in the tournament, seven, including NU, finished in the Top-50 Golf Digest Coaches’ Poll last spring. Some of the favorites to take home the team crown of the tournament are NU, Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, and Arizona.
Any Cats golfer could possibly take home the individual crown due to the comfort of playing at home, but one contender everyone is eyeing is freshman Casey Wittenberg from Oklahoma State, who recently competed in the U.S. Amateur Championships along with the Walker Cup.
In addition to wanting to make a good showing in front of their home fans and trying to improve upon their slow start last week, the Cats must have a good showing today and tomorrow due to the fact that they will be competing against seven teams from their own district, which is vital in the spring for NCAA qualifying.
“Since the fall season counts towards rankings and NCAA qualifying, it is great for us to have the chance to meet these teams in competition on our home course and a place where we are comfortable,” senior T.C. Ford said.
