Linfield’s men’s golf team participated in the Northwest Conference championships on the weekend of April 26-27. The team had one top-ten finisher and three top-twenty finishers, but could only manage to place fifth out of nine team.
While the team was disappointed in their finish to the season, there is a silver lining. As described by Junior golfer Logan Munson, “most of the team will be back next season and I think we should be able to compete for the conference championship.”
Munson was the best scorer for Linfield in the tournament, shooting a 74 followed by a 79 to end nine over for the tournament and place eight individually.
A.J Taylor and Taylor Klopp were then next best, shooting 12 and 14 over after both days and finishing 16th and 20th, respectively.
Linfield will only be losing two players to graduation (A.J Taylor, Tommy Schmitz) heading into the next season, so the majority of the team will stay in tact, including the top four golfers according to the season end statistics.
Taylor Klopp averaged an impressive 76 strokes per round, leading the team in the end of year averages. Kyle Hargrave and Kevin Kawasaki were very close behind Klopp, averaging 78 strokes per round. Hargrave was unable to make it to the conference championships.
The Wildcats also have a few very promising freshman that will be in the mix of the tournament team for next years squad. Nathan Pellatz, Evan Kasberg and Sam McClain are three freshman that averaged right around the 82-83 mark all year, and definitely have a shot at improving their game and becoming some of Linfield go-to players in the next couple of years.
The team finished fifth in the finals tournament and in the NWC rankings over all. This was the lowest finish the team has seen in 20 year, and the team will certainly be putting in some extra practice hours over the summer to improve for next season.
Looking forward, next year will be the teams chance to be a power house in the golf league.
With the team keeping their top four players, and also having few underclassmen that have shown very high potential, Linfield could see a high finish in the standings for its men’s golf team.
Drew Mahrt/for the review
