Mojo: a magical quality IU men’s golf has lacked until now.
Happy Gilmore found his mojo on the putt-putt course. The Karate Kid found his at the beach. Denzel Washington and the Titans found theirs at Gettysburg. IU men’s golf found its at the Northern Intercollegiate two weeks ago.
Northern marked the Hoosiers’ best team finish since a second-place finish at the Loyola Intercollegiate on March 1, 2016. Junior Brendon Doyle’s eighth-place finish also matched his career-best, also set at Loyola.
“I thought we had a pretty good team effort,” IU Coach Mike Mayer said. “We got contributions from everyone in the lineup, and that’s what you have to have to be successful in collegiate golf. The greens were as fast as any we have seen this year, so I liked that we were able to adjust to them and come away with a second-place finish.”
After a second-place finish at Northern in Chicago two weeks ago, IU travels to Vero Beach, Florida, for the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational. The course provides a change of scenery for the Hoosiers and a different play style due to the difference in climate.
Of the starting five, which comprises Doyle, seniors Andrew Havill and Keegan Vea, sophomore Jake Brown, and freshman Brock Ochsenreiter, Ochsenreiter is the only one with extended experience playing on the marshy, Floridian courses. The freshman returns to his home state of Florida, where he lived until his sophomore year of high school.
At Northern Intercollegiate, Ochsenreiter signed off on the best finish of his collegiate career thus far with a tie for 16th. He carded a 74, the best score on the team in the final round. His score of 226 (+13) matches his best tournament score in relation to par on the year and is his first career top-20 finish.
This week all but one of the schools IU will compete against are ranked inside the top 100 in Division I. For a while, fourth-ranked Florida was in this year’s field, but the Gators had to drop out this summer due to a conflict.
Liberty University, ranked No. 22 in the country, heads up the field for Quail Valley. Kansas, North Florida, Arkansas, Michigan State, Jacksonville, North Texas, Ohio State, Middle Tennessee State, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, West Virginia and Memphis round out the remainder.
“It’s a good field with a lot of high ranked teams, which is good for us,” Doyle said. “We need to compete against those teams and get wins against them. It’s the last tournament of the fall, and it’d be nice to end on a good note.”
This tournament marks the Hoosiers’ last stop for the fall season before they take a four-month-long winter hiatus from competition. When they return to the links, it will be in Palm Beach, Florida, for the Big Ten Match Play Championship. Until then, Doyle said the team will continue to build on its recent success.
“The mojo can only be a positive thing at this point,” Doyle said. “Every aspect of college golf is more fun when your expectations are high and your mojo is higher. Guys are loosening up, joking around. From workouts to practice, everything is much more enjoyable.”
