The spring season is right around the corner for NW women’s golf, while the men’s team is already off to a strong start. Men’s golf swept the first two competitions, placing first of seven teams at the Verhille Invitational and first of 19 teams in the Doane Spring Invitational.
Senior Qwenton Caldwell led the Raiders at Verhille with a second-place individual result. Ray Greller also found success, tying for fourth place.
At the Doane Spring Invite, Evan Smith claimed his second career tournament win. The Raiders matched the program record for a single-round low score at 274.
“It’s hard to be anything other than elated with the spring so far,” Coach Jonathan Beaver said. “Two events, two wins. It’s what we know we are capable of, but we also know competition is difficult and a lot of things must go right to win.”
“The two wins are awesome, and I think we’ve got a good balance of appreciating those wins while staying hungry and wanting to keep improving and putting in work,” Ray Greller said.
The team expects their toughest competition to be at the GPAC Championships in April, where they hope to capture the program’s eleventh conference title before aiming for a top-10 result at the national competition.
A challenge golf faces that is different than most sports is a split season. After October, training continues, but no matchups take place until after the worst of the winter conditions have subsided in March.
“We do a lot of prep inside,” Beaver said. “It is a challenge to simulate the same environment of competition, and practicing indoors off mats is far from playing on an actual grass.”
The women’s team is set for their first spring competition alongside the men’s team at the Briar Cliff Spring Match Play on Mar. 30, an event that will require not just physical preparations, but psychological ones as well.
“The conditions are always the toughest in the spring, so being able to use our mental game and take one shot at a time will be huge for us,” senior Claire Yunag said.
“The Concordia Invite is always a tough tournament with it being notorious for bad weather and playing 36 holes in a day and 18 the next,” Ellie Erickson said. “The GPAC meet is always tougher mentally because we know the goals we have as a team and there is a bit more pressure there with it being conference and the last meet of the season.”
In addition to placing high in the GPAC Championships, next month the team hopes to break the record for team low score this season.
With championship hopes on the horizon, the Raiders seem poised for an excellent end to the year.
