Focus is the name of the game for the IU men’s golf team as it travels to Loxley, Alabama, for its last event of 2018 — the Steelwood Collegiate Invitational.
The two-day invitational starts Saturday at Steelwood Country Club, which features a lake as part of the course, something the Hoosiers have yet to see this season.
IU Coach Mike Mayer stressed the importance of this event and how the team has been playing golf constantly up to this point but still needs to focus to finish well.
“It’s a long, long season,” Mayer said. “I think these guys are ready for a break.”
Mayer said the team is still in the postseason conversation, and the 54-hole event will feature the best lineup the Hoosiers can field.
“We are almost right where we wanted to be at the end of the fall,” Mayer said.
That includes regular starters senior Jake Brown, junior Brock Ochsenreiter and sophomore Ethan Shepherd. Shepherd is coming off the best round of his career at his last event, shooting a 66 on the par-72 Chatham Hills course, as well as his best-ever finish, placing fourth.
The rest of the team is rounded out by junior Evan Geasser, who finished in the top 25 at the same event, and freshman Harry Reynolds, who finished in the top 20.
Reynolds is getting his second start for the team, beating out fellow freshman Mitch Davis. Davis started the last four competitions and competed as an individual in his first event, this will be the first tournament he will miss all season. Reynolds won the start after placing above Davis at Chatham Hills.
“That’s kinda the game of golf,” Mayer said. “You gotta score and those five players did it at Chatham and they have the opportunity to do it here in Alabama.”
