University of North Texas Athletics
Men's Golf Set For Season Opener
9/5/2018 2:03:00 PM | Men's Golf
DENTON – The UNT men's golf team didn't end the 2017-18 season the way it hoped.
A late rally fell short at the Conference USA tournament, and the Mean Green had to settle for a No. 65 national ranking by GolfStat and an individual NCAA regional bid for Ian Snyman.
Now, Snyman is gone, but a wealth of experience is back for the Mean Green, who begin their season on Monday at the UTSA Lone Star Invitational in San Antonio.
"We definitely have more players," senior Jordan Sanders said. "I don't know the incoming guys well, but we'll find out what they have. We have the experience of some of these courses, which is nice. Last year we were pretty young. We had Thomas [Rosenmueller] and Ian, who knew the courses, but none of the other guys really did. Now we're going back to the same courses with some good notes on them that you can look back on."
The beginning of the season includes a run of three consecutive tournaments in Texas with the latter two in Dallas-Fort Worth. UNT returns to SMU's Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas Sept. 23-25, and then hosts its first tournament at the Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, the Mean Green's state-of-the-art home course. UNT closes the fall season in Windermere, Florida, at the Tavistock Invitational.
"I want to show them who's the boss out here – who's the team to beat," said Rosenmueller, also a senior, about the opportunity to host a tournament at Maridoe Oct. 6-8. "It's going to be a good showing in October. We have a good team. We have the right mindset to compete on this course. I call it a monster, because that's what it is. It's really hard. Teams that play on easier courses are going to be freaking out out here."
While Snyman, who was the C-USA Golfer of the Year last season, is gone, the Mean Green return four core players from last year's squad in Rosenmueller and Sanders, along with Vitek Novak and Viktor Forslund, who were both named to the C-USA All-Freshman team.
With a good mix of experience and talented freshmen like Juan Pablo Lavalle, Hlynur Bergsson and Henri Renouard, head coach Brad Stracke believes his team is ready to compete against the best.
"This season brings a lot of excitement," he said. "We have four of our top five returning and add three talented freshmen to the mix. We get to co-host for the first time at Maridoe Golf Club, which is one of the premier golf courses in the country. We're looking forward to starting our season Monday in San Antonio. I believe in this team and know they are capable of great accomplishments this season."
Sanders echoed his coach's sentiments and said he's ready to make amends for last season, when UNT finished fifth to miss out on the final day of match play by one spot.
"The way we finished off last season, we're coming out with a little chip on our shoulder," Sanders said. "We had a pretty good team last year, and this year we have some of the same guys and we're excited to see if the new guys can step up and do something for this team. It's nice in qualifying to have this many guys out there competing for a spot on the team."
A late rally fell short at the Conference USA tournament, and the Mean Green had to settle for a No. 65 national ranking by GolfStat and an individual NCAA regional bid for Ian Snyman.
Now, Snyman is gone, but a wealth of experience is back for the Mean Green, who begin their season on Monday at the UTSA Lone Star Invitational in San Antonio.
"We definitely have more players," senior Jordan Sanders said. "I don't know the incoming guys well, but we'll find out what they have. We have the experience of some of these courses, which is nice. Last year we were pretty young. We had Thomas [Rosenmueller] and Ian, who knew the courses, but none of the other guys really did. Now we're going back to the same courses with some good notes on them that you can look back on."
The beginning of the season includes a run of three consecutive tournaments in Texas with the latter two in Dallas-Fort Worth. UNT returns to SMU's Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas Sept. 23-25, and then hosts its first tournament at the Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, the Mean Green's state-of-the-art home course. UNT closes the fall season in Windermere, Florida, at the Tavistock Invitational.
"I want to show them who's the boss out here – who's the team to beat," said Rosenmueller, also a senior, about the opportunity to host a tournament at Maridoe Oct. 6-8. "It's going to be a good showing in October. We have a good team. We have the right mindset to compete on this course. I call it a monster, because that's what it is. It's really hard. Teams that play on easier courses are going to be freaking out out here."
While Snyman, who was the C-USA Golfer of the Year last season, is gone, the Mean Green return four core players from last year's squad in Rosenmueller and Sanders, along with Vitek Novak and Viktor Forslund, who were both named to the C-USA All-Freshman team.
With a good mix of experience and talented freshmen like Juan Pablo Lavalle, Hlynur Bergsson and Henri Renouard, head coach Brad Stracke believes his team is ready to compete against the best.
"This season brings a lot of excitement," he said. "We have four of our top five returning and add three talented freshmen to the mix. We get to co-host for the first time at Maridoe Golf Club, which is one of the premier golf courses in the country. We're looking forward to starting our season Monday in San Antonio. I believe in this team and know they are capable of great accomplishments this season."
Sanders echoed his coach's sentiments and said he's ready to make amends for last season, when UNT finished fifth to miss out on the final day of match play by one spot.
"The way we finished off last season, we're coming out with a little chip on our shoulder," Sanders said. "We had a pretty good team last year, and this year we have some of the same guys and we're excited to see if the new guys can step up and do something for this team. It's nice in qualifying to have this many guys out there competing for a spot on the team."
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Friday, November 04