Although rain forced 36 of the 54 holes to be cancelled, the Marquette golf team started the spring season with a victory at the Bethune Cookman Spring Invitational in Daytona Beach, Fla. over the weekend.

"It's a positive any time you win an event," head coach Tim Grogan said. "We picked up where we left off in the fall, I thought that was a success."

Marquette shot a team score of 290 for the tournament, which equaled the team average for the fall season.

Leading Marquette were freshman Ted Gray and junior Joe Weber, who both shot 72, which was good enough for 4th overall and left them only one stroke from first place.

Sophomore Michael Bielawski and junior Kyle Murphy also put in strong efforts, both finishing with a score of 73, and junior Steve Stass shot an 83.

It was important that the team start the season off on the right foot, according to Grogan.

"When we come out from the winter no one cares that you haven't played," Grogan said. So it was "very important (to play well) because there is so much confidence involved."

During the off-season, the team spent the majority of the time conditioning and working on improving the basic fundamentals of each player's swing, according to Grogan. The team used video to film each player's swing and then looked for ways to improve.

"With video it's a huge advantage to work on that," Grogan said.

Next weekend the golf team will travel to the Virgin Islands to compete in the St. Croix Collegiate Classic. The tournament will run from March 4 to 6.

The Golfweek/Sagarin Men's District Rankings rates Marquette 16th in the Midwest District. It will face 12 to 15 of the district's top 20 teams at this tournament, according to Grogan.

"It's a pretty important event for us," Grogan said. "A majority of the top teams in the district will be there."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 1 2005.