2007 Fall Season in Review
October 25, 2007 | Men's Golf
Upon wrapping up last week's Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge, the UW men's golf team put a close to their up-and-down but overall successful 2007 fall season. Though their play was a bit unpredictable at times, the full body of work that the Badgers put forth showed a great deal of potential for Wisconsin to have a phenomenal spring season in 2008.
The Badgers, who ended their 2007 campaign ranked No. 35 in the Golfweek/Sagarin team rankings, started the season off at the St. Mary's Invitational in Pebble Beach, Calif. UW finished in a tie for sixth place as a team, while the nationally ranked No. 32 Dan Woltman (Beaver Dam, Wis.) and Danny Zimmerman (Verona, Wis.) ended in a tie for eighth place overall. This acted as a fitting start to the season, as the junior teammates became Wisconsin's two leaders throughout the rest of the 2007 fall campaign.
The Badgers proceeded to set forth on an impressive run, tying for second place at the Minnesota Invitational and coming in second at the VCU Shootout. In Minneapolis, UW finished ahead of two of its Big Ten rivals, Indiana and Michigan State, who are both currently ranked in the nation's top-20. Zimmerman also tied for first place among all individuals, finishing ahead of many top-class players, notably Minnesota's No. 8 Clayton Rask.
In Virginia, the Badgers finished ahead of No.7 Tennessee-Chattanooga, as well as current top-25 squads Wake Forest, Wichita State and North Carolina. Woltman tied for fourth at the VCU Shootout and was helped out by Jeff Kaiser's (Onalaska, Wis.) tied-for-seventh-place finish.
In UW's final two events prior to last week's Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge, the Badgers finished in a tie for fifth at the Memphis Tiger Intercollegiate and in sixth place at the Prestige at PGA West. In Memphis, Tenn., Woltman and Zimmerman again finished as Wisconsin's co-leaders, tying for 18th place overall. At the PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., Woltman matched Zimmerman's top finish one month prior with a shared individual title of his own, beating out Charlotte's No. 6 Jonas Enander Hedin as well as many other elite opponents.
The Badgers struggled in their final event of the season, ending with a total score of 922, 58-over par, to finish in last place in the eight-team Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge.
While last week's event will certainly leave a bitter taste in the mouths of Wisconsin, the team's overall body of work throughout the 2007 spring season was quite impressive and leaves much to anticipate in 2008.
