2013 GLVC MEN'S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL | @GLVCsports | #GLVCgolf
The 2013 Great Lakes Valley Conference Men's Golf Championship will tee off Sunday at Otter Creek Golf Course in Columbus, Ind., marking the 35th annual GLVC Championship in the sport. The postseason event, set to take place April 21-23, also marks the 18th year the GLVC Championship will be played at Otter Creek Golf Course, which will be played on the North and West courses at a par of 72 and 6,897 yards.
The GLVC Championship features a 54-hole stroke play event with the top four teams following stroke play competing in medal/match play to determine the conference champion. A total of 36 holes will be played on Sunday, followed by 18 holes on Monday. The 18-hole semifinal and final medal/match play contests will take place on Tuesday.
Missouri-St. Louis enters the postseason as both the conference’s and the Midwest Region’s top-seeded team as the Tritons are coming off impressive winning performances at the two spring invitationals, including the 24-team “The Jewell” and the 31-team Midwest Regional #2, played last week at Purgatory Golf Club in Noblesville, Ind. UMSL, led by head coach Troy Halterman, will be looking for the program’s first-ever GLVC Championship. Junior Joe Atkisson is the No. 1 golfer for the Tritons this week, but watch for red-hot freshman David Abolt, who captured medalist honors at The Jewell and placed third at Purgatory last week.
Indianapolis is the second-seeded team at the conference championships and fifth overall in the region. In the Greyhounds’ past three events, they have finished third, fourth and 12th in regional action, with the third-place result coming at the UW-Parkside Spring Invitational, which was held at Otter Creek. Senior Tobin Dunigan, the reigning GLVC Player of the Month, secured that honor after notching his second top-five finish of the spring with a 2-over-par 146 in the 90-man field.
UW-Parkside, which won its own invitational on April 1 at Otter Creek thanks in large part to a tournament-best round of 295 in the final round, will enter the GLVC Championship seeded fifth behind No. 3 Lewis and No. 4 Bellarmine, who also rank seventh and eighth in the region, respectively, just ahead of the Rangers in ninth. UWP’s Keith Buntrock was one of just golfers under par at Otter Creek, scoring a 2-under 142 (71-71) to finish second by two shots.
Maryville, Drury, Southern Indiana, Quincy and Illinois Springfield fill out the top-10 seeds in this week’s field, while Rockhurst, William Jewell, Saint Joseph’s and Kentucky Wesleyan round out the 14-team field. GLVC member McKendree, which is still an NCAA Division II provisional member, is not eligible to compete for the GLVC Championship and the conference’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championship, however the Bearcats have been invited by the conference to compete this week as non-scorers.
A few individuals to keep an eye on this week at Otter Creek will be a Quincy trio of Blaise Haxel, Patrick Higgins and Andrew Boudreau, Saint Joseph’s Garrett Bianchi, Bellarmine’s Alex Foley, and UIndy’s David Frank, all of whom finished in the top 15 at the UW-Parkside Invite on April 1. Also, Lewis’ Harrison Carmichael enters the weekend fresh off a playoff win at the Midwest Regional last week at Purgatory, following rounds of 68 and 74 for a 2-under 142. Carmichael bested Dustin Harris of Maryville in the playoff, while Harris’ teammate Michael Fowler tied for third with UMSL’s Abolt and Southern Indiana’s Logan Osborne one shot back at 143.
Indianapolis has captured 13 GLVC Championships, followed by Lewis and Northern Kentucky with six each and Bellarmine with five. Southern Indiana, UW-Parkside and former league-member Ashland have all claimed the GLVC Championship once.
Last season, Northern Kentucky won the GLVC Championship at the Paducah Country Club in Paducah, Ky., in dramatic fashion by securing a 3&2 victory over Indianapolis on the final hole. The Greyhounds actually outscored the Norse 295-304, but the first-ever medal/match play format provided NKU the opportunity to take home its sixth and final GLVC title as they reclassified as NCAA Division I members this year. In semifinal action, No. 1 NKU defeated No. 4 Rockhurst 4-1, while No. 2 Indianapolis topped No. 3 Bellarmine, 4-1, to advance to the finals. NKU's Corey Richmond was named GLVC Champion after carding rounds of 77-74-73 to finish with an 8-over-par 224 over the two-day affair.
The top five finishers at the GLVC Championship are named All-GLVC and the top finishing individual after 54-hole medal play earns medalist honors. The remaining golf awards, including All-Conference positions Nos. 6-10, as well as GLVC Player, Freshman, and Coach of the Year, are named following the spring season.
Admission to the 2013 GLVC Men's Golf Championship is free to the public.