Timmy Hollenbeck, who lost in a playoff to Flynn for the league title? Give us your scores and we’ll crunch some numbers.
“I don’t really think anybody’s set in stone. Timmy’s and Flynn’s experience and how they played last year in the conference holds a decent amount of weight. But golf is just such a roller-coaster,” Lash said.
“A lot of guys are working hard, and we’ll see if they can translate that to the golf course. ... You’re always trying to find your five best come April, and that’s what we’re still going to be doing. We’ll see who can rise to the occasion.”
The Raiders were picked as the preseason league favorites for the sixth straight year and have finished first-second-first-second-first in the last five HL tourneys.
Four starters are back, and Lash has one sure vacancy with 2022 HL champ Mikkel Mathiesen having moved on to pursue his pro dreams.
“In the fall, we had some highs and lows. That’s good to build on, and, hopefully, it kept everybody a little motivated through the winter,” Lash said.
The Raiders won the 15-team Golden Grizzlies Intercollegiate and had two other top-four finishes among their four tourneys. But at the Dayton Flyer Invitational, they finished a so-so sixth.
“We’ve got a ton of talent returning. And some guys that maybe haven’t gotten as much reps are starting to come around a little bit,” the fourth-year coach said.
Hollenbeck, who was the league freshman of the year last season, averaged 71.09 in the fall, while Flynn, a fifth-year player who also won the Wright State Invitational, averaged 71.82.
Junior Shane Ochs, who was named first-team all-league, came in at 72.09, while junior Adam Horn, a second-team all-league pick, averaged 73.09.
All four returnees cracked the top-25 of the league tourney at Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., last year. The Raiders finished the three-round event 8-under-par —18 strokes better than second-place Purdue Fort Wayne.
Fifth-year player Brock Rumpke also had a strong fall, finishing with a 72.2 average with a low round of 66.
Those five will start when the Raiders open the spring season Monday and Tuesday at the loaded Border Olympics in Laredo, Texas.
Houston and Michigan are among nine top-100 teams in the RPI in the field.
“Timmy came on real strong last year, and with Flynn winning the conference and winning in our event, he’s getting some confidence behind him, which is good,” said Lash, whose team is 108th in the RPI.
“Those two definitely played the best at the end of last year. But any one dude could show up and surprise us.”
Lash took a different approach to the split season, dropping one fall event and picking up another in the spring (teams are allowed 24 competition days in a school year).
He also moved the Raiders’ annual recreational golf trip from early January in Orlando to spring break in Charleston, S.C.
The money they’ve been raising with a 50-50 raffle at men’s basketball games will help pay for it.
“I want to bring everybody and kind of make it a cool trip with team bonding,” Lash said.
“If we went somewhere in January like we did last year, it was good to get those reps in, and you could qualify (for a starting spot) for the first event. But this is a little closer to the conference tournament (April 19-21), and, in my mind, the reps will go a little further.”
About the Author