No. 2 MGCCC takes aim at 3rd straight national title
PERKINSTON — The two-time defending national champions return this weekend to the site of last year's triumph to complete preparations for another title defense. The NJCAA Division II Men's Golf Championship is being played in Plymouth, Ind., where the Bulldogs won by one shot last year.
It's a return trip to Swan Lake Golf Resort, where the Bulldogs opened the season with a preview event. At the time, a fifth-place finish may have seemed disappointing. However, it was an all-new team filled with freshmen making their first starts in a collegiate event.
"It's been about getting as much experience as we can, and we've done a really good job of that with our schedule," Gulf Coast coach Brad Thornton said. The guys have taken advantage of some opportunities, especially here in the spring, and I've really seen them grow a lot here in the past month. I was really impressed going through postseason, and we've just really been hammering down how mentally tough you have to be at a national championship."
The 72-hole tournament starts Tuesday, and Gulf Coast, which is second in the Bushnell Golfweek NJCAA Division II Coaches Poll and first in the Clippd National Collegiate Golf Rankings, will be trying to become the first program since Darton in 2005-07 to win three straight national championships. Live scoring will be available at https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/244655/scoring/team.
Heartland, now ranked first in the coaches poll and third in the computer rankings, won the fall event. No. 4/4 Kirkwood finished second, while South Mountain — ranked third by the coaches and seventh in the computer rankings — was not in the field.
Jayden Owensby (Fr., Hernando/Hernando) is sixth in the computer rankings. He finished tied for 22nd at the fall event, finishing 3-over. Thornton has been imparting the details of the game plan the last year's team used to win. Golf in northern Indiana is not the same as here, starting with different grasses and including elevation changes and the lack of pitching areas around most greens.
"The game plan is about staying patient," Owensby said. "When you're in position there, you can take advantage of it, but when you're out of position, take your medicine and do the smart thing."
The Bulldogs have been through a challenging schedule that saw them win four regular-season tournament, plus a second-place finish after a playoff, and easy wins in the MACCC and Gulf South District championships.
Paul Hoefer (Fr., Heidelberg, Germany/Kurpfalzgymnasium Mannheim) is 11th in the rankings and finished tied for 35th in the preview event. He and the rest of the team are more familiar with each other and with Thornton, and gained familiarity with Swan Lake in September.
"You can go low, like in the first round, I putted really good and that was like 2-under, but in the last round, I felt like I didn't play too much different, but it was so hard and I was 5-over," Hoefer said. "I felt like I didn't really do too much differently, and that's what Coach always said. The course can actually bite you back, and it's not easy."
There aren't courses exactly like Swan Lake down here, but Thornton has tried to use pieces of several to help practice what will be needed.
"They practice as hard as any guys we've had on our team in the past, so I'm really excited to take this bunch up," he said. "I think we're peaking at the right time, and hopefully all that hard work comes out whenever we tee it up on Tuesday."
Gulf Coast will begin play Tuesday looking to add another chapter to one of the NJCAA's premier golf dynasties.
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