The Gustavus men’s golf team will begin play at the NCAA Division III Championships today in Lincoln, Nebraska. The 72-hole tournament that runs Monday thru Thursday will be played at Firethorne Golf Club. The Gusties, who enter the national tournament ranked 10th nationally, will tee off beginning at 12:00 pm on Monday.
The Gusties have had a very strong spring winning the Gustavus Bobby Krig Invitational and finishing second at the Buena Vista Invitational. Four of the five players on this year’s national tournament team were a part of the squad that finished 18th at last year’s national tournament in Florida. The returners include junior All-American Mark Stuckey, senior Clayton Johnson, senior Jon Hagedorn, and junior Erik Tone. The other member of this year’s squad is sophomore Jordan Hawkinson. Stuckey earned All-America honors with a 24th place finish at the national tournament a year ago. He finished with a 72-hole total of 78-75-75-77–305.
Clayton Johnson leads the team in stroke average this year at 75.7 through 19 rounds. Jordan Hawkinson ranks second at 75.9, followed by Mark Stuckey at 76.1, Erik Tone at 77.6, and Jon Hagedorn at 78.5. As a team, the Gusties are averaging 305.0 strokes per round (scoring four players) through nine events this year.
The Gusties are making their 23rd consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships which is the third longest active streak in Division III men’s golf behind Allegheny (30) and Methodist (26),
You can follow the tournament through the NCAA Tournament website. Live stats will be available through the site.