The men’s golf team has them traveling near and far this season, with their escapades having them travel from Sartell, Minnesota, to their invitational in Tualatin, Oregon. Both invitationals have had men’s golf scores that were impressive against tough opponents, placing third in the Saint John’s Fall Invitational in Minnesota and fourth in the Orange and Black Invitational in Oregon. 

Whitworth’s men placed third overall of 13 teams, which highlights a slight improvement from last year’s performance when they placed fourth in the St. Johns Invitational. With a total score of 599, barely skipping past St. John’s University’s B team with a score of 600 total and missing Concordia’s final score of 591.  

Scott Kramer,  men’s golf head coach, explained that expectations are high this year, “So far, our performance has not been quite up to our standard, but still, it would be considered very good, you know, across the country in terms of the scores we were shooting. Kramer expands on these high standards, stating, “We have our sights set really high in what we’re hoping to accomplish, which is winning a conference championship and then going to the national championships up in Maine.” 

Graduate student Sam Pauley and senior Jabo Rawley tied for fourth at the St. John’s Invitational. They both ended with a final count of 145 points each. However, they struggled to find the same success the following week at the Orange and Black Invitational, with Jacob tying for sixth despite having the same final score in both invitationals and Sam tying for 15th with a score of 149.  

When discussing the potential of a friendly rivalry, Kramer explained, “They feed off each other 100%. And the cool part is that they couldn’t be more happy for one another when they play well, but there is no doubt about it: they’re trying to beat each other.” 

Four other golfers attended the distant invitational to represent the pirates, with Mathew Durkin and Andy Hobson both placing in the 20th and Aaron Storem tying for 56th. At the same time, Gabe Cach tied for ninth as a non-scoring player. “My expectation for the guys to give it their all every time we have a team practice,” Kramer said when discussing all of his players, “and that has more to do with attitude and effort than it does with skill.” 

Men’s golf finished off the season on Monday, October 21st, at the Conl.