Scots Training For Spring Season During Two-Week Southern Trip

The College of Wooster, which played four fall tournaments, will spend much of the next two weeks training at various golf courses in the southeastern United States, in order to prepare for a five-tourney spring season. The Fighting Scots are slated for one warm-weather competition, a head-to-head match-up with North Coast Athletic Conference rival Denison University on Friday, March 14, at Panther Creek Golf Club in Jacksonville, Fla. Wooster will get into its regular weekend tournament schedule with the annual Kenyon Cup Invitational on March 29-30.

Spring Preview: After an up-and-down fall season that saw the Scot golfers finish as high as third-place in an eight-team tournament and as low as ninth out of 10 in another, they are seeking increased consistency this spring, which could result in a top-three finish in the highly-competitive North Coast Athletic Conference. The NCAC, which includes NCAA Div. III top-20 programs Allegheny College and Ohio Wesleyan University, determines its champion and final standings via four tournaments, two of which took place during the fall. Wooster currently is tied for third with Denison University (1,238), four strokes ahead of fifth-place Wittenberg University (1,242).

Taking over as the Scots’ No. 1 player is senior Pat Lynch (Naperville, Ill. / Marmion Academy). He faces the challenge of replacing two-time first-team All-NCAC honoree Andy Van Horn, but Lynch already has an all-conference certificate himself. He took up a spot on the All-NCAC Second Team after averaging 80.2 over last season’s four NCAC tourneys, and built off that with a squad-best 75.4 scoring average during the fall.

In the two fall NCAC tourneys, fellow senior Jim Ipema (Western Springs, Ill. / Lyons Township) matched Lynch, tallying 303 strokes (75.8 average) for the 10th-best score among the conference’s players. Ipema averaged 77.4 overall for the fall.
Also with a spot in the starting lineup is Sean Glaser (McMurray, Pa. / Peters Township). The junior just missed out on all-NCAC honors with an 81.0 average during the 2006-07 season, and he lowered his average to 79.3 this past fall. Noteworthy, he hopes to carry over the momentum of a season-low 75 from his final round of the fall into the spring.

Filling out Wooster’s lineup will likely be some combination of seniors Jason Greenwald (North Bethesda, Md. / Sherwood) and Erik Shoger (Cleveland Hts., Ohio / Cleveland Heights), and sophomore Tim Sullivan (Bethel Park, Pa. / Seton-LaSalle). Greenwald is carrying a 79.5 scoring average into the spring, while Sullivan and Shoger are at 81.8 and 82.3, respectively. Shoger, in addition to Van Horn, Lynch, and Glaser, scored in all three rounds at last year’s NCAC Championships (82-86-86), and Sullivan gained championship experience (84-88-87) starting in place of a senior who came down with an illness.