Great Midwest Men’s Golf Championship Preview

4.22.18

Championship Program (PDF)

First Round Tee Times

Live Scoring


LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio
– After the Findlay women turned in a record-breaking performance last weekend, it’s the men’s turn to shine as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Championship gets read to tee off on Monday morning.
 
A total of 11 programs will figure into the mix of the team scoring at the par-72, 6,736-yard setup as the Great Midwest Championship makes its return to Four Bridges Country Club for the fourth straight season.
 
Fifty-four holes will be played, including 36 on Monday’s first day of competition. The weather forecast is much more promising after the women endured snow, freezing rain and 30 mph gusts of wind in a frigid 36-hole tourney.
 
For five straight seasons, Trevecca’s men has finished at the top as conference title winners. The Trojans have withstood fierce competition and overcome pressure since the inaugural event in 2013; the program directed by head coach David Head will look to do it again this year with the numbers to back up their quest.
 
Trevecca features the top two scoring leaders in the regular season, freshman Blain Turner (71.74) and junior Larken Whittemore (71.75).
 
The duo has combined for three medalist honors, eight top-10 finishes, three athlete of the week selections and only one hundredth of a percentage point separates their impressive season scoring averages.
 
The Trojans posted the lowest 18-hole team score in conference history with a blistering 15-under par at the Mississippi Invitational. TNU also led the conference in single-round team scoring with an average 296.5 among the team’s top four scorers at a given event.
 
Some teams will be seeing Four Bridges for the first time while other players with a track record of success will take aim for higher finishes in the race for medalist honors. Two guys to keep an eye on will be Cedarville’s Jordan Reese, who was the 2016 runner-up and a top-five placewinner last season.
 
Alderson Broaddus senior Seth Vannoy has experienced similar success with his conference peers with top-five finishes in both 2015 and 2016.
 
Findlay is tops among the new batch of teams in their first year with the league as the Oilers won the Great Midwest Fall Invitational at the Findlay Country Club. Sophomore Luke Kelly anchors a balanced UF lineup with a team-leading 73.73 scoring average. Kelly ranks fourth in the conference in scoring average.
 
Kelly was a conference athlete of the week selection along with Hillsdale junior Liam Purslowe, who was third in the league in scoring average. Malone has two of the conference’s top 10 scorers with Jacob English and Kyle Barnett coming back to Four Bridges as the Pioneers finished the 2017 tournament as the team runner-up.
 
Live scoring for the Great Midwest Championship can be tracked online at Golfstat.com.