KOKOMO, Ind. — Absolute, total victory.
Indiana University Kokomo’s men’s golf team began its mission of winning the River States Conference championship this season, winning its first tournament of the season at IU East, while setting a new 18-hole record score of 287.
This team has incredible promise,” said third-year coach Giesecke. “It’s a team with an incredible mindset right now. It’s a team I hope is going to be relentless, and has total focus on one goal — absolute, total victory.”
The team is capable of winning every tournament, he said.
The guys will tell you the same thing; we want to win everything,” he said. “There’s nothing less. We know how good we are, and we will go into every tournament expecting if we play our best, we can win each one.”
The 13-member team includes 10 returning players, who have worked hard to improve their game. They narrowly missed qualifying for the national tournament in the spring.
Everybody is back, and they’re chomping at the bit to make up for last year,” Giesecke said. “They’ve been working on those aspects of the game that made them weak. Most of our starters have been in the program three years. We’re shooting our best scores. Last year, we set school records every time we were out, and I expect to break those again this year.”
Next up is the University of Northwestern Ohio Tournament, set for Friday at the Players Club in Muncie.
Each tournament, five golfers play, with the top four scores counted. Senior Taylor Fletcher (Arcadia/Hamilton Heights HS) started the season first in the lineup, followed by juniors Sam Seagrave (Kokomo/Kokomo HS) and Cam Weddell (Tipton/Tipton HS), senior Austin Welch (Westfield/Westfield HS), and sophomore Riley Tomlinson (Kokomo/Western HS).
The sixth player, who serves as alternate, is freshman Jadon Kosberg (Kokomo/Taylor HS).
It’s just herculean that a freshman is this close to the starting lineup,” Giesecke said. “The sixth man gets to play and compete, but his score doesn’t count towards our total. He gets to see what the other five are doing, he gets the feel of college play. Being a freshman, it’s super that he’s in that role.”
Additional freshmen are Brayton Hattabaugh (Brownstown/Brownstown Central HS) and Alec Weddell (Tipton/Tipton HS).
Our freshmen are learning,” Giesecke said. “They are catching up and pushing the upperclassmen in front of them.”
Returning players include seniors Seth Grimme (Tipton/Tipton HS), Kaleb Harness (Rossville/Huntington University) and Baylor Woolley (Kokomo/Western HS), and sophomores Gehrig Forsythe (Frankfort/Clinton Prairie HS) and Ricky Mynatt (Indianapolis/Franklin Central HS).
The golf team will play in six tournaments during the fall season, including the River States Conference Fall Preview September 23 and September 24 in Florence, Indiana, and the IU Kokomo Cougar Invitational September 28 and September 29 at the Wildcat Creek Golf Course.
For more information, go to iukcougars.com
Indiana University Kokomo serves north central Indiana.