Central gears up for men’s golf championships
Central College
PELLA—The Central College men’s golf team returns to a familiar stage May 10-13 at the NCAA Division III championships held at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C.
The Dutch are making their 30th NCAA tournament appearance since 1975, but their first under coach Chad Green. Central captured its 29th Iowa Conference title earlier this spring to earn an automatic-bid into the tournament.
Conference coach of the year Green will take the same five players that participated in the league tournament, where senior Jason Harvey (Goldfield, Clarion-Goldfield HS) and Justin Livingston (sophomore, Winterset) went one-two in the medalist standings. Alex Huyser (senior, Sully, Lynnville-Sully HS), Brent Messmore (junior, Hudson) and Drew Osier (sophomore, Austin Minn.) round out the fivesome.
Harvey, the conference men’s golf MVP, has competed twice at the national level. He tied for 100th in 2009 and improved to a tie for 77th in 2010. Messmore placed 110th last season, when the Dutch tied for 17th in the team standings. Central’s best finish was fifth place in 1985. Brian Goldsworthy won the NCAA title that year to claim the best individual performance in the program’s history.
Joining Central in North Carolina are 27 league champions, six independent institutions and six at-large selections. Five individuals were chosen from the remaining players that hadn’t already qualified with a team for a total of 205 participants. Returning champion Methodist (N.C.) is the only school that has made more tournament appearances than Central with 31.
“There are more good teams this year than there ever has been,” Green said. “Every legitimate school received a bid.”
Central will play practice rounds Sunday and Monday before the four-round competition begins Tuesday. The first 18 holes will be played on the West Course, a par 72 that is 7,800 yards. Wednesday’s round is played on the 7,100-yard East Course, also a par 72.
“Both courses are tight and tree-lined,” Green said. “But there aren’t any big differences between the two.”
The field will then be cut to 15 teams for the final two rounds, a change from the 20-team cut in previous years.
“Our first goal is to make the cut,” Green said. “If we do that our secondary goal is to be in the top 10.”
The Dutch will aim for low, consistent scores.
“Our toughest challenge will be getting a solid fourth score,” Green said. “It’s something we’ve struggled with all year—we’ve always had to keep a higher score than we want.
“We’ll also work on keeping the big numbers off the scorecard,” Green said. “Looking at the results from last year that’s something that affected the team. It’s easy to make up a bogey in one hole but it takes a lot more to make up double or triple bogeys.”
Central has faced little adversity in its spring season, claiming four team titles, three individual crowns and two runner-up finishes, losing by a combined seven strokes. The only time the squad struggled was in the third round of the league tournament when Central posted its highest round of the season and saw its lead drop seven strokes.
“We hadn’t had a bad team score all year and we got out of sync in that third round,” Green said. “But we came back and put up a good final score. It was good for our players to experience that and build up more of the momentum we’ve been rolling on all season.”
Central’s lowest team score was a 283 at the Scot-Fire (Ill.) Inv. April 22-23. Harvey is the team’s stroke average leader with a 74.4 mark followed by Livingston at 74.6. Messmore has a 76.4 average, Huyser is at 76.6 and Osier is at 77.7.
It may be the first national tournament for three of the five golfers, but Green isn’t worried.
“In the end it’s just golf,” Green said. “All five may be nervous off the first hole but after that it’s the same thing we’ve been doing all year. It’s one swing at a time.”
