The Ohio men’s golf team will open its spring season Monday when it travels to Florida to participate in Mid-American-Conference Match Play.
The tournament, hosted by Ball State, will take place at Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club in Dade City, Fla.
Ball State enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed and will face Ohio in the opening round. Eight MAC schools will partake in the tournament.
The Bobcats last competed in October at the Dayton Fall Invitational.
Ohio placed third in the tournament, and finished five strokes out of first place.
Junior Byron Firestone finished tied for second in individual competition at the conclusion of the tournament. The third place finish was the Bobcats’ best finish of the fall season.
Coach Bob Cooley said the successful finish should give his team fortitude heading into the spring season.
“The nice thing about it is we ended on a real good tournament the last tournament we played in so the kids have got some confidence,” Cooley said. “And then being outside, being able to play, that’s just going to help them that much more.”
Cooley said he is excited to get back to competition, and he said the nice weather outside has been a plus and has given the Bobcats a head start.
Because the format is match play, individual scores are not counted. Cooley said this opportunity gives the players time to work out kinks in their game before entering stroke play, when individual scores matter.
“They’ll find out what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong and what they need to work on,” Cooley said. “It should help us quite a bit.”
This is the first year for match play in the MAC, and Cooley said teams in other conferences including the Big Ten and the Big East have showed positive results after competing in similar tournaments.
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