It took all spring, but on the last round of the last tournament of the spring, in Marquette's last Conference USA men's championship before moving to the Big East, the team finally played its best golf.
After struggling in the first two rounds of play, shooting rounds of 306 and 308, the Golden Eagles showed they were unwilling to 'pack it in.' Instead, they finished out the year on a high note, having their best round of the spring shooting a 287 and finishing in ninth place.
"One negative of the spring season was the opening round at conference," head coach Tim Grogan said. "If we would have played the last round first, we would have been a lot more competitive."
Expectations were high coming into the spring after one of the more successful fall seasons in the team's recent history.
"We were ready to pick up where we left off and be competitive in each event we played in," said Grogan about the team's attitude heading into the spring. "A good part of the time (this spring) we accomplished that."
The hot play of the fall seemed to have burned on through the cold Wisconsin winter after the Golden Eagles took first place at the rain-soaked BC Spring Intercollegiate in their first tournament of the spring season. Strong play at the Naples Intercollegiate and the Pinehurst Intercollegiate were some of the high points of the spring season for Grogan.
"I thought we played good early in the season, highlighted by the fourth place finish at the Naples event and the Pinehurst event," Grogan said.
Although there were many highs this spring, there were a few lows, with the team failing to find its groove through parts of the spring.
"We just had a couple of events we just didn't play well in, the El Diablo tournament was one of them," Grogan said. "Some guys lost their confidence. That was one of the lower sides of the spring season."
"This is probably the first group that every tournament we go to we are thinking about winning," Grogan said.
The biggest surprise of the spring and of the year as a whole was the play of freshman Ted Gray.
He led the team in scoring average for the year, rounds under 70, tournament scores under 216, and he had the lowest round of the year with a 65 at the John Piper Intercollegiate. Gray led the team with a spring scoring average of 74.65 on his way to earning a spot on the C-USA All-Freshman Team.
"You don't expect that from a freshman, you don't know how they will play their first year," Grogan said. "As far as that he played better than I thought he was, but I knew he was good."
In addition, junior Kyle Murphy and sophomore Michael Bielawksi continued to improve from last year and finished the spring second and third, with a scoring average of 74.38 and 74.86, respectively.
Juniors Steve Sass and Joe Weber also improved their scoring averages dramatically from last year. Sass brought his stroke average of 76.91 from last year down to 75.80 this year, and Weber took 0.9 off his stroke average, which brought him down to a stroke average of 74.80 for the year.
Next year looks bright for the golf team, which will see all five starters return along with the return of senior Nathan Colson, who red-shirted this last year. Heated competition is expected for the final starting spot, considering Colson holds the all-time Marquette scoring record.
"They will play qualifying rounds for each of the tournaments in the fall, the top five scores will be the ones who will go to the first tournament," Grogan said. "It will create some pretty good competition for the team."
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 28 2005.