The men and women’s golf teams played in the Lone Star Conference Championships April 21-22 in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, both teams placed third. Going into the championship before the Easter break, five golfers on the men and women’s teams had to qualify.

Kynze Mann, sophomore in radiology, said, “You have to beat out your teammate. It’s great because it’s not about the same five every time.”

Men

Derek Oland, junior in business, lead the way for the men’s team this season. NCAA DII ranked Oland fourth in the nation and earned Lone Star Conference Player of the Year. Oland won the conference individual championship.

Jeff Ray, golf head coach, said, “Anytime you have someone that anchors your team like Derek that you can depend on to basically be in the top five or ten of every golf tournament, that gives you a good start right there. If the other guys can play solid golf after that you’re going to be successful.”

Five golfers compete while four of the scores are kept when it comes to scoring.

Ray said, “You always have a throw out score. The worst score of that round you can not take. To have a good team you have to have four good quality scores and for the most part this year we’ve been able to do that.”

Julio Gonzalez, senior in management, said he wasn’t sure what to expect as a transfer student but helping the team win is a priority.

Gonzalez said, “I just wanted to make the team and do well each round. I can help the team by staying focused.”

NCAA South Central Region ranked the men sixth.

The Lone Star Conference Championship had a different format this year, one round of stroke play when all the strokes are added up within a round and two rounds of match play with each hole a new contest. Ray said a bad hole doesn’t hurt you in match play but it’ll kill you in stroke play.

Brandon Banks, sophomore in management, said, “Coming back from a bad round is one of my strengths. You have to be able to clear your head and shoot well.”

Women

The women’s team is ranked sixth in the DII West region and placing first in the championship was a big goal for the young team. The women finished third in the conference championship. Brenna Moore, junior in nursing, and Hayley Dambold, freshman in business, tied for fifth individually.

Moore said, “It’s frustrating because we know we can be winning. We know what could have been done.”

Throughout the year the team has placed either second or third in five tournaments.

Ray said, “It’s an extremely young golf team but they are very talented. With just a little bit more experience we can get where we want to be. This team has a chance to be a top five or six team in the nation. This teams potential is great.”

Without a senior on the team the women aren’t going to lose any golfers.

Moore said, “We need to improve our strokes. We’ve missed first place in too many areas.”

Tarleton State University took first in this year’s conference championship. Beating Tarleton was the team’s goal and is something the team is going to continue trying to complete.

Sierra Campbell, freshman in marketing, said, “Right now our goal is to beat Tarleton. They always win. We want them to beat us at our best not us beating ourselves.”

The women have mainly struggled with posting quality scores at the same time. Ray said Moore usually posts the lowest score and at times all the golfers have posted the lowest score.

Ray said, “If we can ever get them going all at the same time, their potential is there big time. All of our girls are capable of having a great round.”

The men and women’s regional tournament selections will be announced April 28.