The Ohio State men’s golf team will host its only home tournament of the season, the 33rd Kepler Intercollegiate Tournament, tomorrow and Sunday at OSU’s par-72 Scarlet Course.
The Buckeyes look to post their second consecutive win of the season and take back the title they have won 19 times from two-time defending champion Northwestern. The Buckeyes last won the tournament in 1998.
The NCAA only allows for 24 days of golf to be played during the season, which limits the Buckeyes to only one tournament in Columbus.
OSU coach Jim Brown cites the home-course advantage as one of the biggest in the sport. “We know the greens and where to hit the ball and where to miss,” Brown said.
Senior captain Mike Austin is looking forward to the opportunity to finally play at home. “I’m excited to sleep in my own bed. We play there everyday so we know every nook and cranny, and we know where the pins are going to be.”
OSU is coming off of its first victory of the season, the Marshall Invitational in Huntington, W. Va., where the team set a tournament record low score with a three-round total of 839. The win was the 16th in the tournament for the Buckeyes.
Brown thinks the team has a good chance of winning. “The scores we had at Marshall are our potential. We can win if we do that,” Austin said.
Austin, who led the Buckeyes, shot a tournament-tying record-low score of 208 for 54 holes. Austin captured the individual victory on the par-71 course, which tied Michael Harris of Michigan, who originally set the mark in 1998. Austin has been an All-Big Ten player two of his three years at OSU.
“It was a great team effort, everyone contributed,” Brown said. “We haven’t had that consistency from all five players at the same time. We need everyone to play good.”
“It helps to win,” Austin said. “I was confident the whole winter and spring. I have more confidence in the team now. It was our first win in over a year.”
Brown lists the Marshall Tournament, the Kepler and the final tournament of the season, the Fossum Invitational, as the three most important tournaments of the year. They are also the last three tournaments and lead into the Big Ten Championships, held May 4-6.
“We keep improving. Minnesota and Northwestern are the top teams with a bunch of us on their heels,” Brown said. “We need to take it one tournament at a time and play good and consistent.”
“We were among the front-runners at the beginning of the year. We had a good host at the Big Ten,” Austin said.
OSU will put the same five golfers on the course this weekend that they did in West Virginia: Austin, Jason Oien, Ryan Dennis, Justin Collins and Kevin Hall.
Tomorrow’s shotgun competition will have 17 teams with the 18-hole first round beginning at 8 a.m. and the 18-hole second round at 12:30 p.m., for a total of 36 holes for the day. The finals will be held at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
