Senior Ben Sieg and the men’s golf team could really use a time machine. With the Big East Championships approaching, a trip down memory lane, say to 2008, would do wonders.
That year the Golden Eagles were the first team in Marquette history to win a Big East Championship title with an overall score of 874, topping Louisville by two strokes.
In 2009 the two teams played a role reversal. Louisville took the championship by five strokes. In 2010, the Golden Eagles finished the lowest they have in five years, in ninth place.
“In 2010 we just didn’t have the same mentality,” Sieg. “This year feels like 2008 and 2009 again.”Sieg said the loss of former players Mike Van Sickle and Dustin Schwab, who both graduated after the 2009 season, had a lot to do with the defeat last season as well.
Now, the men travel to Palm Harbor, Fla., where they will meet with 12 Big East schools to determine who is best in the league.
The Golden Eagles’ spring record showed signs of struggle. Their best finish in the last four invitational matches of the spring was 11th. Last season Marquette entered the Big East Championship coming off of a fifth place finish at the Irish Creek Collegiate.
Among the field the Golden Eagles are currently one of the top-five rated teams in the conference, according to Golf Stat, following Notre Dame, St. John’s, Louisville and Villanova.
Louisville has taken the title in three of the last five years and finished second in the other two, once to the Golden Eagles and the other to Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish enter the Big East as the highest-rated Big East team, according to Golf Stat. Kretz and Sieg agree that Notre Dame is the team to beat.
“We beat Notre Dame this year in match play, so that proves we can beat anyone in the conference,” said coach Steve Bailey.
Seniors Kelly Kretz and Sieg were part of the history-making team three years ago and now have a chance to do it again.
Sieg’s personal goal for what could be his final tournament was simple: “Do everything I can to make sure it’s not my last tournament in college.”
As for Kretz, he just wants to win a tournament both as a team and individually, and is confident about his chances individually as well as his team’s.
“This is a great golf course for me; it’s long,” he said. “I can use that as an advantage.”
Kretz was the only freshman in the lineup during Marquette’s championship win, and he will have to step up in the leadership position with this being Bailey’s first Big East Championship.
Despite the pressures of this tournament possibly being the end of the season, depending on the outcome, it’s going to be the same routine and preparation as it has been all season, Bailey said.
Sieg is confident Bailey can lead Marquette to a conference championship because he has coached individuals and teams before and has a “winning mentality,” Sieg said.
If the team succeeds in the tournament, it will move on to the NCAA Regionals which start May 19, in a location to be determined.
