Both the men’s and women’s golf teams are off to a hot start, with both sides breaking school and individual records just a few meets into the season.
Evan Kujawa, a first-year golfer and business administration major from Toledo, photo by Aubrey Bartel
The men’s team broke the 36-hole record with a score of 626. Freshman Evan Kujawa, a business administration major from Toledo, broke the individual record for 36-holes with a 152.
“The first years have contributed a lot,” head coach Adam Craig said. “The leadership and the work ethic that they show have pushed the upperclassmen a little bit. It’s not granted anymore that you’re going to travel every week.”
Kujawa, who has been golfing for 12 years, said he’s most excited about meeting new people and playing on new courses, as well as the increased competition level that college golf brings.
“My goals personally, I’d love to win Freshman of the Year in conference, and I’d love to get on First Team All-Conference,” Kujawa said. “For the team, just improving on last year. I know we had a rough year last year, so just improving our scores from last year.”
Bluffton University Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach Adam Craig, photo by Aubrey Bartel
Craig said he’s excited by the improvement he has seen already on the men’s side.
“We haven’t shot a score in qualifying tournaments where we’ve averaged above 80,” Craig said. “That’s leaps and bounds above where we were last year. It’s looking good, and we just want to keep going and ultimately get to the end goal of each season, which is the conference championship.”
The women’s team broke its 36-hole record Sept. 8 with a team score of 735. The Beavers also shot a 367 on Sept. 7, which tied their school record set Sept. 4. Sophomores Brylee Oberdorf and Keely Briggs tied for the individual 18-hole record with a score of 89 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Briggs and sophomore Abby Bullion set the 36 hole individual score record on Sept. 8 with a score of 182.
“On the women’s side, we’ve bettered ourselves every week,” Craig said. “I told the ladies last night if we continue on this pace, we’ll be where we need to be come conference championship in October.”
Haley Gill, a first-year golfer and nutrition and dietetics major from Indianapolis, photo by Aubrey Bartel
Despite their early success, freshman Haley Gill, a nutrition and dietetics major from Indianapolis, said the team still isn’t where they want it to be.
“It’s pretty cool [to be breaking records], but none of us are really happy with where we’re at,” Gill said. “We’re always trying to improve and get better. It’s nice to know that our program is finally growing.”
Gill said she has some goals for the program long term.
“We definitely [want to] break more records, that’s definitely in the future,” Gill said. “And just making sure after I leave, we’ve left an impact on the program and that the people following us have room to grow and are improving still.”
Craig said that on both sides, experience is the main difference from last year.
“Some of the sophomores and juniors on the team now have a couple of years of experience playing,” Craig said. “They took it home with them this summer and put in a lot of work and have become leaders.”
Bluffton will host both the women’s and the men’s conference championship, the women’s in the fall and the men’s in the spring. The men’s next meet is the Lourdes Fall Invitational at Legacy Golf Course Wednesday, Sept. 25. The women’s next meet is the Heidelberg Fall Invite at Mohawk Country Club Saturday, Sept. 14.
