Saturday, April 19, 2008

Final Tune-up Before Conference Tournament

The Coe men’s golf team had its final tune-up for the Iowa Conference Tournament, with a 6th place finish in the 17 team Buena Vista Invitational this past Friday and Saturday in Storm Lake. The Kohawks shot 322 the first day and a season best 305 on the final round of the tournament. Central College won the Invitational, shooting rounds of 292-294.

Brothers Nolan and Jayson Schmelzer led the way for the Kohawks this past weekend. Senior Jayson Schmelzer shot rounds of 78-75, while Nolan shot the same score with rounds of 80-73, putting them both in a tie for 16th. Also competing for the Kohawks were seniors Chris Buhr 78-79, junior Nate Feldman 86-78 and sophomore Rob Copeland 92-80. The Kohawks placed second amongst Iowa Conference schools and enter the conference tournament with the 3rd best scoring average amongst the competing schools.

“As a team we had a pretty good second day at BV,” says Nolan Schmlezer who enters the Iowa Conference tournament with the best scoring average for the Kohawks. “It was nice to see our entire team well in our last meet before conference.”

The Iowa Conference Tournament begins this Friday and Saturday with the first half of the tournament taking place at Finkbine golf course in Iowa City. The tournament then concludes with the final two rounds next Friday and Saturday at Oneota Country Club in Decorah.

Central College is overwhelming favorite again this year to repeat as conference champions, but the Kohawks like their chances to be competitive and make a good run at the conference as well.

“Were good,” says Nolan Schmelzer. “If we get everyone playing to there capabilities we got a good chance at being right there with Central.” Good luck to the Kohawks in there run in the Iowa Conference tournament.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Snow was in the air for the Wartburg Invitational

I know that I have talked a lot about how bad the weather conditions have been before this golf season, but their was no doubt that the conditions we endured this past weekend up at Wartburg were the worst that I have ever played in.

We left Cedar Rapids early Saturday morning and the entire drive north to Waverly was in blowing snow condition! Might I remind you that we are in the middle of April at this point. When we got to the course, there were only a few other team vans in the parking lot and the course was covered in a thin layer of snow. Their was no way were playing... or would we.

The coaches had a meeting prior to us getting our clubs out of the van and a decision was made that once the snow had evaporated we would attempt to get 9 holes in on Saturday, followed by a 27 hole day o Sunday to complete the tournament.

As the wind and snow continued to blow throughout the day on Saturday, playing conditions were horrible and we were all glad when the first day was completed. On Sunday conditions improved steadily, but the wind was once again blowing in excess of 25 m.p.h.

As a whole, all our scores showed improvement from the first day. Below is a list of our team results as well as individual scores. Nolan was once again medalists for the Kohawks as he fired the 4th best score of the entire tournament.

9 Coe College 327 312 639
T 4 Nolan Schmelzer 77 75 152
T 22 Chris Buhr 80 78 158
T 53 Michael Jump 84 79 163
T 70 Nate Feldman 86 82 168
T 74 Jayson Schmelzer 90 80 170

The Kohawks next head to Northwest Iowa for the Buena Vista Invitational. The tourney is slated for the par-72 Spencer Country Club on Friday and the par-72 Lake Creek Country Club in Storm Lake on Sunday.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Conference Tournament Course Beginning to Take Shape

Today we got the first look of the season at Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City, host of this seasons conference golf tournament. The course as it always is was in great shape.

The greens were rolling pretty quick, but it is expected that in 3 weeks at the conference tournament they will be rolling even faster. Everyone was glad to go down to Iowa City and play the course. We got 4 out of our top 5 back from last season, so most of our starting roster has some experience playing the course. We spent about a half hour on the chipping and putting greens and then proceeded to play the front 9.

With really bad weather and the possibility of even more snow coming, it was a much needed day for all of to have a good practice session. We will go down to Finkbine a few more times before the tournament and hopefully be the most prepared team in the tournament for the golf course.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Another week... another successful tournament for the Kohawks

Hey everyone...

This past weekend we played in the Loras Duhawk Invitational over in Dubuque at the Meadows Golf Course. As a team, we placed 8th in the 20 team event, and junior Nolan Schmelzer did very well placing 9th in a field with over 110 golfers. We were just 2 strokes away from placing 6th, but we were happy with the overall performance.

Our stats for the tournament were as follows:

8 Coe College 314 328 642
9 Nolan Schmelzer 75 76 151
T 26 Chris Buhr 78 82 160
T 48 Michael Jump 78 86 164
T 61 Jayson Schmelzer 83 84 167
T 92 Nate Feldman 86 93 179

Mother nature however was not too kind for us again. On Sunday, we played in very windy conditions with gust up to 30 m.p.h. The temperatures for Sunday were in the upper 50's so the playing conditions were not too severe. On Monday though, the conditions were as bad as I have ever played in.

We teed off at 9 a.m. and temperatures were barley in the 30's! Combine that with windyer conditions then the day before and it was nearly impossible to play a round of golf. That speaks to how great of a round Nola and the rest of our team was able to posts in two miserable days of golf.

It has been raining all day in Cedar Rapids, so Coach has already decided to cancel practice for the day.

This weekend we travel to Wartburg for there two day tournament. The weather isn't looking so promising so it may be a similar story as last tournaments playing conditions.

This week we will be focusing our practice to our short game. Coach Grimm has said that is the biggest part for all of our games that needs improvement. We are planning on practicing tomorrow down at Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City too get prepared for faster greens and our conference tournament there in three weeks.

Hopefully the weather cooperates and we can see some warmer and dryer days ahead.

Go Kohawks!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Kohawks win Simpson Invitational!

On Tuesday we played in the Simpson Invitational held at Blank Golf Course in Des Moines... and we won our first ever college team tournament in my four years at Coe!

The conditions were brutal for all the golfers. We were scheduled for a 10:30 a.m. tee time but weather conditions forced our starting tee time back to noon. As we drove to Des Moines from Cedar Rapids, we drove for a half an hour through heavy snow. We thought there was no way we were going to play. But the snow that fell didn't stick to the ground and the course was still playable, barley.

The wind gusts were blowing in excess of 30 m.p.h. when we started, but after about six holes the conditions improved and we actually saw signs of the sun for the first time in a long time.

As a team we shot 319, and were lead by mine and Mike Jump's scores of 79. We beat host Simpson by one stroke, who we hadn't beaten in 2 years. It was definitely a sign of the improvements our team has made throughout the season and the guys are surely looking forward to this weeks two-day tournament in Dubuque at the Meadows.