Young Badgers Look to Climb Big Ten Ladder
April 28, 2006 | Men's Golf
The Wisconsin men's golf team is in Lake Forest, Ill., this weekend to take part in the Big Ten Championships. The 72-hole tournament will take place on the par 71, 7,168-yard Conway Farms Golf Club where the 11-team field will play 36 holes today and 18 holes on both Saturday and Sunday.
With no seniors, the Badgers knew coming into this season that their lineup would be full of young talent. That inexperience has led to highs and lows this season, but head coach Jim Schuman believes that his team has momentum entering the Big Ten Championships.
'It seems as though you carry over what you've done last week,' Schuman said, 'and we came off with some good momentum last week and some good scores. I know the guys are very, very excited, for Big Tens this week. '
The high point for UW may have been back in early October when the team put together top four finishes in consecutive weekends at the Memphis Intercollegiate and the Xavier Invitational. Two weeks later, Wisconsin recorded the third lowest 54-hole total in school history at the Barona Collegiate Cup.
This spring, the Badgers have finished as high as seventh twice, including at the Boilermaker Invitational where four players finished in the top 25.
Freshmen have played a key role all season for UW. Through 11 tournaments this season, five freshmen have accounted for 53% of all rounds played by Wisconsin. The other 47% belongs to three players: sophomore Jeff Kaiser and juniors Garrett Jones and Adam Steinhofer. Those three will be joined by freshmen Tyler Obermueller and Pat Duffy this weekend at the Big Ten Championships.
Junior Garrett Jones (Rewey, Wis.) leads the team in scoring average at 73.06, a total that would rank second in school history behind only his 72.74 average from last season. His career scoring average of 73.45 (6,170 strokes, 84 rounds) would break the school record by over half a stroke. Jones has finished 23rd or better in nine of 11 tournaments this season, including six top-15 finishes and two top-5 finishes. He has also played in 82 consecutive tournament rounds for UW.
Sophomore Jeff Kaiser (Onalaska, Wis.) ranks second on the team in scoring average at 74.59. Kaiser is one of only two players to compete in all 32 tournament rounds this season and has led the team in four of 11 competitions, including three of six this spring. He and Jones are the only Badgers playing this weekend who have competed in the Big Ten Championships before.
Freshman Tyler Obermueller (River Falls, Wis.) has played in 26 rounds and ranks third on the team in scoring average at 75.2. His best finish of the season came at the Memphis Intercollegiate where he tied for 16th place.
Freshman Pat Duffy (Appleton, Wis.) ranks fifth on the team in scoring average at 75.9 while playing in 26 rounds. Duffy shot a career best 69 in the first round of the Xavier Invitational. His best career finish came earlier this month at the Boilermaker Invitational where he tied for 22nd place.
Junior Adam Steinhofer (Madison, Wis.) has played in 12 rounds this season including the last three tournaments. Seven of his last eight rounds have been below his season scoring average of 80.1. Coming into this season, Steinhofer had played in only six tournament rounds at UW.
Last season, Wisconsin finished seventh as the host school for the Big Ten Championships, which were played at University Ridge. Kevin Tassistro, a senior last season, led the team by tying for eighth place at 213 in the 54-hole event. Current junior Garrett Jones paced all of the returning players with a 21st-place tie.
UW has won three Big Ten championships in its history including back-to-back titles in 1993 and 1994. The Badgers also won the 1957 championship. Four Wisconsin players have won the individual title with the most recent being Ben Walter in 1994.
Wisconsin's young lineup will be put to the test this weekend at the Big Ten Championships at Conway Farms Golf Club. Live stats for the event can be found at golfstat.com while round results will also be available at bigten.org and on uwbadgers.com.
