St. Peter, Minn. – After a fall season that saw its fair share of ups-and-downs, highs-and-lows, flashes of brilliance and moments of frustration, the Gustavus Adolphus men’s golf team looks to come together at the biggest stage – the 2014 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships being held Saturday, Oct. 11 through Monday, Oct. 13 at Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.
“To go to the MIAC Championships with no seniors in the lineup will certainly be different,” said Head Coach Scott Moe. “This is a young squad without a lot of experience, but it’s a group that’s hungry to prove something. Bunker Hills is a golf course that caters to us, and the guys are ready for the challenge. Playing well this weekend has been our focus since the beginning of the season. If you get hot on the right weekend, you can have great success. That’s what our goal is. “
The Gustavus men’s golf team is looking to improve on 2013’s sixth place finish where the team shot a 925 (+61) over the course of the three-day event. This season, coach Moe will go with a lineup that features Matt Spier (Jr., Prior Lake, Minn.), Andrew Brandt (Jr., Medina, Minn.), Andrew Krasaway (Jr., Hermantown, Minn.), Chris Captain (Fr., Rochester, Minn.), and Matt Rastetter (Fr., Maple Grove, Minn.).
Of this year’s starting lineup, Brandt and Krasaway are the only two who have experience at the MIAC Championships. Last season, Brandt shot a 234 (+18) to finish 26th, while Krasaway shot a 239 (+23) to place 39th.
“This is a group of great competitors,” said Moe about the makeup of his lineup. “We need to stay within our goal, stay within our limits, and not get too far ahead of ourselves. Because they are so competitive they have high expectations. Sometimes when those expectations aren’t met they tend to tighten up and not play relaxed. That has been our downfall this year and that’s what we needs to turn around this weekend in order for us to be successful.”
Matt Spier enters the tournament with the team’s top stroke average at 76.8 (+5) after 691 strokes and nine rounds. Andrew Brandt is next in line with a 77 (+5) average (10 rounds, 770 strokes) and one top ten finish, which came by way of a 10th place showing at the Saint John’s Fall Invitational (Sept. 13-14) where he fired a 153 (+9). Both Spier and Brandt have posted a team-best low round of 71 this season.
After Brandt is the first of Gustavus’ two rookies in the lineup, Chris Captain. Captain carries a 77.3 (+6) average after ten rounds and 773 strokes. Krasaway holds a 77.9 average (+6) after 10 rounds and 779 strokes, and Rastetter has a 78.3 average after ten rounds and 783 strokes. Krasaway also has a top ten finish at a tournament this fall – placing eighth with a 149 (+7) at the Frank Wrigglesworth Blugold Invite in late-September.
“We’ve had one good round but other than that it has been inconsistent at best,” Moe said. “This team is capable of getting off to a fast start, but it’s the second and third day that need to come together. If we can find a way to finish on the second day, I’m confident we will be right in the thick of it on Monday.”
Gustavus’s No. 5 player, Matt Rastetter, will be on the tees first Saturday afternoon at 12:08 p.m. The remainder of the Gustie lineup will tee off every eight minutes following.
Scott Moe said that he wants to see his guys go out and play relaxed, loose golf this weekend. “The expectations are coming from within and not from any outside sources. We are a dark horse on paper and that’s an exciting role for a young lineup like this. If we can focus on the shot in front of us instead of the results, we will be just fine.”
GUSTAVUS LINKS
Roster | Statistics | Schedule/Results
FROM THE MIAC
The three-day, 54-hole MIAC Golf Championships will tee off Saturday at 11:28 a.m. at Bunker Hills. Sunday’s second round will also tee off at 11:28 a.m., and Monday’s final round will tee off at 9 a.m. Spectators are welcome to attend and there is no admission fee, and spectators are encouraged to read and follow the tournament’s spectator rules.
There will be a short awards ceremony following Monday’s final round to honor the top teams and individuals. The championship team will receive the MIAC championship plaque, as well as the conference’s automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Division III Golf Championships. The top 10 individual finishers will be named to the All-Championship team, and will be automatically eligible for All-Conference honors in the spring.
Fans who can’t make the trip to Coon Rapids can follow all the action on the MIAC Golf Championships web site, which will include unofficial hole-by-hole live scoring updates, results, pairings, tee times, recaps, photos and more. Fans can interact on social media throughout the tournament on the MIAC’s Facebook page, or on Twitter using the hashtag #MIACgolf. The MIAC’s YouTube channel also includes a promotional video for the event.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
There are numerous ways fans that aren’t traveling to Coon Rapids can follow all the action throughout the tournament. The MIAC is enhancing its (unofficial) live scoring, and now will offer hole-by-hole updates through Golfstat’s live scoring system. Fans will easily be able to track team and individual progress throughout all three rounds.
The MIAC has a championship home page for the event, that will serve as the online home of the tournament. The championship page will include tee times, pairings and results as they become available, as well as recaps, photos and more.