As third-year coach Conner Lash said: “To be honest with you, this team has the ability to maybe (shoot) a little lower than last year. The consistency is what we lack right now. Tyler and Mikkel, if they played bad, they’d say, ‘I’m still shooting right around par.’ I think we’re working toward that.”
The Raiders finished second out of 15 teams in the Golfweek Fall Challenge in Pawleys Island, S.C., in their first event last month and first out of 15 squads in the Golden Grizzlies Intercollegiate, pounding seven league foes in the field.
They also have a tie for fourth in Bowling Green’s rain-shortened Virtues Intercollegiate.
“This team has some talent. They have the distance, the power, the finesse. Trying to get them to know how good they are and how good they can be is kind of my goal this year,” Lash said.
Fifth-year player Andrew Flynn won the individual league title last season, beating sophomore Timmy Hollenbeck in a two-hole playoff.
But junior Shane Ochs actually was the team scoring leader at 72.0, while Flynn was at 72.31 and Hollenbeck 72.38.
Mathiesen set the Wright State career scoring record at 71.23, while Goecke — who transferred to Illinois for his fifth year and tied for second in the NCAA tournament — had a 71.29 average as a Raider.
They also won a combined 15 individual titles (Mathiesen a school-record eight and Goecke seven).
But Lash sees players on his roster with just as much potential.
“I told them, ‘I’m not surprised if you go out and shoot 65. But I think it might surprise YOU.’ (Confidence) is something Tyler and Mikkel didn’t lack. They knew how good they were. They knew they could compete and win,” he said.
The Raiders have won three of the last five league tourneys and finished second in the other two, and they’ll be the team to beat again next spring.
Along with Flynn, Hollenbeck and Ochs, they have experienced players in junior Adam Horn (73.52 average last year), soph Kye Fisher (73.83), junior Ian Asch (73.36) and fifth-year player Brock Rumpke (76.15).
They have one more fall event Monday and Tuesday at the stacked Dayton Flyer Invitational at NCR Country Club — they finished third last year, two shots behind winner Marquette and one behind NCAA tourney quarterfinalist Illinois — and then will start competing again in February.
But that doesn’t mean they’ll be putting their clubs away for the winter.
“I tell them, ‘You guys are spending these first seven months showcasing your talents. When we get to the end of March, we’ll start picking lineups,’” Lash said.
“I know any single person can beat anyone else on the team. They all have the ability to get in the lineup and win a golf tournament.”
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