University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Prepping For Spring Slate
2/12/2019 9:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
DENTON – Back in October, as North Texas was wrapping up its fall schedule at Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Florida, the Mean Green were up against a loaded field featuring 10 top-50 teams nationally.
After a rough couple of rounds to open the three-day event, the Mean Green closed the tournament, and the fall season, on a high note by firing a 288 and moving up two spots on the final leaderboard while besting their second-round score by 11 shots.
While UNT's 13th-place finish might have been unsightly on paper, head coach Brad Stracke said that final round performance was a perfect springboard into what he hopes is a successful spring slate, which begins Feb. 17 at The All-American Intercollegiate in Houston.
"The last tournament, I didn't think we played too bad, the scores were just really low," Stracke said. "We had a great final round in a stacked field, and that gave us something to build on for the spring."
Stracke said he believes his team is capable of putting together a special spring, thanks in large part to a level of depth he hasn't had in years.
Sure, there's senior Thomas Rosenmueller, the team's most decorated golfer who won an individual title in the fall at Trinity Forest, but after him is a closely bunched group including Jordan Sanders, who had a round average of 72.82 in the fall, Viktor Forslund (73.82) and Lenny Bergsson (74.45).
Stracke also praised the play of freshman Henri Renouard, who played in just one tournament in the fall, as well as redshirt sophomore Kristof Ulenaers, whom Stracke said is "totally different player than he was last year at this time."
"If this team gets in the right frame of mind and they're prepared for these tournaments, they could compete and even win against one of these stacked fields," Stracke said. "It's just about having five guys play well. It's really difficult to have all five guys play well, there's not too many teams that do that, but if we get to that point, we'll have an excellent chance to win one of these."
The Mean Green had a late addition to their schedule and are set to play seven spring tournaments, finishing with the Conference USA Championships April 21-24. Four of those tournaments are return trips from last spring, including the N.I.T. in Tucson, Arizona, where UNT finished fourth out of 16 teams a year ago.
"We have six events, not counting conference, and in a lot of those we're going back to a course we've played," Sanders said. "We played really well in Arizona last year and go back there. With the depth we have this year, qualifying is more competitive and we can battle and make guys better, especially the younger guys.
"This fall, I feel like we had a decent season but we expected more from ourselves," Sanders added. "We have some fire in us coming out this spring."
Now Sanders, one of the program's two seniors, believes he and his teammates are ready to take that next step.
"We proved to ourselves last fall at Maridoe, beating a couple of top-25 programs, and also at Isleworth, with that last round," Sanders said. "When we play our top golf, we're up there with the best programs. We just have to get more consistent and maybe those days we aren't hitting it well, just manage it and don't hurt ourselves too bad and go out the next day and make it up."
After a rough couple of rounds to open the three-day event, the Mean Green closed the tournament, and the fall season, on a high note by firing a 288 and moving up two spots on the final leaderboard while besting their second-round score by 11 shots.
While UNT's 13th-place finish might have been unsightly on paper, head coach Brad Stracke said that final round performance was a perfect springboard into what he hopes is a successful spring slate, which begins Feb. 17 at The All-American Intercollegiate in Houston.
"The last tournament, I didn't think we played too bad, the scores were just really low," Stracke said. "We had a great final round in a stacked field, and that gave us something to build on for the spring."
Stracke said he believes his team is capable of putting together a special spring, thanks in large part to a level of depth he hasn't had in years.
Sure, there's senior Thomas Rosenmueller, the team's most decorated golfer who won an individual title in the fall at Trinity Forest, but after him is a closely bunched group including Jordan Sanders, who had a round average of 72.82 in the fall, Viktor Forslund (73.82) and Lenny Bergsson (74.45).
Stracke also praised the play of freshman Henri Renouard, who played in just one tournament in the fall, as well as redshirt sophomore Kristof Ulenaers, whom Stracke said is "totally different player than he was last year at this time."
"If this team gets in the right frame of mind and they're prepared for these tournaments, they could compete and even win against one of these stacked fields," Stracke said. "It's just about having five guys play well. It's really difficult to have all five guys play well, there's not too many teams that do that, but if we get to that point, we'll have an excellent chance to win one of these."
The Mean Green had a late addition to their schedule and are set to play seven spring tournaments, finishing with the Conference USA Championships April 21-24. Four of those tournaments are return trips from last spring, including the N.I.T. in Tucson, Arizona, where UNT finished fourth out of 16 teams a year ago.
"We have six events, not counting conference, and in a lot of those we're going back to a course we've played," Sanders said. "We played really well in Arizona last year and go back there. With the depth we have this year, qualifying is more competitive and we can battle and make guys better, especially the younger guys.
"This fall, I feel like we had a decent season but we expected more from ourselves," Sanders added. "We have some fire in us coming out this spring."
Now Sanders, one of the program's two seniors, believes he and his teammates are ready to take that next step.
"We proved to ourselves last fall at Maridoe, beating a couple of top-25 programs, and also at Isleworth, with that last round," Sanders said. "When we play our top golf, we're up there with the best programs. We just have to get more consistent and maybe those days we aren't hitting it well, just manage it and don't hurt ourselves too bad and go out the next day and make it up."
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Friday, November 04