Men’s golf opens their 2015 spring season as the fifth-ranked squad in NAIA.
OCU won or finished second in all seven of their tournaments last season including second in the Sooner Athletic Conference Championships and the NAIA Championships. The Stars finished four strokes behind NAIA champion Coastal Georgia in the national tournament at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The Stars concluded the fall schedule with a win in the U.C. Ferguson Classic and third-place finishes in the Oklahoma Baptist Invitational, The Mid-South and the Johnson & Wales Dave Adamonis Sr. Invitational.
“We played average this fall, which is good and bad,” Coach Kyle Blaser said. “As a coach you would like to see exactly how good you can be, but also as a coach you know there is so much room for us to improve and room for us to peak.”
Four players return from the five-man squad that finished runner-up in the NAIA last season. Anthony Marchesani, Matthew Cheung, Garrison Mendoza and Scott Verplank and all gained valuable experience in the national championship last season.
“I’m hoping we get some leadership,” Blaser said. “Three of the guys we have returning are all-Americans. You’ve got three all-Americans and two you think will be all-Americans, it’s a good problem to have. They should bring experience to the table.”
Junior Marchesani is a two-time NAIA all-American who is looking to three-peat and be in contention for national player of the year. Marchesani shot 78-73-76-227 in the NAIA Championships. He finished second on the team with a 71.89 stroke per round average in the fall season.
Sophomore Cheung finished tied for seventh at the NAIA Championships and earned third-team NAIA all-American nods from the Golf Coaches Association of America and NAIA Championships all-tournament team. Cheung averaged 75.00 strokes per round in the fall.
Sophomore Mendoza turned in a score of 70-77-76-223 in last season’s national championship while rolling in 10 birdies. Mendoza also collected third-team NAIA all-American honors last season and posted a stroke average of 72.67 in the fall.
Junior Verplank made three birdies in three rounds of the national championship with a 78-73-76-224 final score. Verplank carded a 73.11 average score in the fall.
The Stars are set to begin their 2015 campaign Feb. 15 in the Claud Jacobs Intercollegiate at Victoria Country Club in Victoria, Texas, as part of a field that contains six teams currently ranked in the top 25 and three receiving votes in the coaches’ poll.
“We’ve got all the pieces of the puzzle there,” Blazer said. “It’s going to be so competitive with the kids that we’ve added and the kids we have. We’ve got tons of depth which is going to make us tougher and hopefully make us better.”
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