New siuecougars.com and Special Olympics

We have unveiled a new www.siuecougars.com and it looks great!  Take a look at our new site when you get a chance and take a look around.  Our sports information team did a great job with the design and is very user friendly. 

On Saturday, our team volunteered with the rest of the SIUE athletes and staff for the annual Special Olympics meet at Korte Stadium on the SIUE campus.  The meet was a great success and our volunteers did a great job.  It is such a fun event to be a part of and watch the excitement of all the Special Olympics athletes throughout the day.  Here a few pictures from Saturday.

Homb voted to OVC All-Newcomer Team

Congrats to Mitchell Homb as he was voted this week to the OVC All-Newcomer Team!  It is some great news to end the season with and help all of us to strive for more awards next year.  Here is the link to the OVC release http://www.ovcsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&SPID=2449&SPSID=31105&ATCLID=205419490&DB_OEM_ID=6200

Also the SIUE release:  http://www.siuecougars.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/042612aaa.html

It was a rollercoaster season for us, but I know we have the talent to compete next year for tournament titles.  The guys are going home this summer and are going to work very hard on their games.  All have told me they will play a competitive summer schedule to give them more experience and be ready to go when we get back in the fall.  After a couple much needed weeks away, I know I will itching for the fall before we even get to June.

Thanks for all the support we received this year!  We very much appreciate it!  Remember to follow me on twitter as I will update as much as possible about the guys during the summer about their good finishes in summer tournaments.    

Dalton Charboneau- 2012 Signee

We have received our NLI from Dalton Charboneau of Brooklyn Park, MN (Osseo High School) and are happy that he will be joining us next fall as we continue toward our goal of becoming OVC champions.  Dalton was named 2nd team All-State as a Junior, tied for first place in the Minnesota Junior PGA Championship with rounds of 72-71, is a 4 time All-Conference golfer, has a low tournament round of 65, and has 10 1st place or runner up finishes in high school invitationals.  He is just starting his senior season as Minnesota High School golf is in the spring.  Already this spring he has claimed a tourney title featuring over a 100 individuals and claimed a 2nd place finish in another!  We look forward to having Dalton next year and I look forward to seeing him play the next four years. 

E.Y Invitational

We are getting ready for our last tournament of the year as we head to Muncie, IN and play in the Earl Yestingmeier Invitational hosted by Ball State University.  We have played this tournament before and adds a different element of a 6 count 5 event in place of the normal 5 count 4.  This will really test our depth but we look forward to seeing how we compete.  The field is good and includes Austin Peay, Ball State, Butler, Cincinnati, Cleveland State, Dayton, DePaul, Eastern Kentucky, Louisville, SIUE, Ohio, Valpo, Wright State, Youngstown State and Vincennes.  We haven't received our pairings yet but will hopefully post or get it up on our twitter account on Friday.  Remember to check in as I try to give updates on the guys and our team throughout the tournament @SIUEMensGolf. 

Lineup:

1. Alex Knoll
2. Mitchell Homb
3. Grant Wynia
4. Taylor Cox
5. Colin McCarty
6. Taylor White

NXY Hoosier Invitational

Sorry in the delay of the last couple posts as we have been crazy busy this past week with two tournaments in 7 days.  I am seeing so many positives from our guys right now that are not showing up in the scores.  We have for the most part been ball striking really well but have just been struggling from 100 yards and in.  We finished 11th out of 15 at IU but were only 8 shots out of 7th.  We are really close to breaking through and I have so much hope for this team in the coming years.  Mitchell Homb recorded a new career low in the first round of the IU tournament with a 70 and followed it with a 72.  He also made a great comeback the last round after a tough start to shoot 76 making an eagle 3 on his 17th hole of the day.  Colin McCarty fought the putter all week but birdied 3 of his last 4 on Sunday to shoot 75.  Grant Wynia also kept together a good round the last day after starting 3 over through 2 to shoot 75.  Although, we are not happy with 11th place this week, I have seen so many positives from our guys the last two weeks it gets me excited for Ball State in a couple weeks and for the years to come.  We have some very good talent and are only going to get better after all the experience we have gained this year with a young team.  I know the guys are excited to finish up this year at Ball State and work very hard this summer so we are ready to go next year in our first year competing for an OVC championship. 

1	Northwestern	281	277	283	841	-11
	2	IUPUI	291	274	287	852	E
	3	Indiana	285	285	283	853	+1
	4	Detroit Mercy	290	286	285	861	+9
	5	Evansville	286	290	291	867	+15
	6	Wright State	295	285	292	872	+20
	7	Ohio	293	283	298	874	+22
	8	IPFW	285	295	298	878	+26
	9	Butler	294	288	297	879	+27
	10	Western Illinois	299	281	301	881	+29
	11	SIUE	290	292	300	882	+30
	12	Illinois State	294	291	298	883	+31
	13	Dayton	297	295	299	891	+39
	14	Oakland	307	298	309	914	+62
	15	Youngstown State	310	302	310	922	+70

I want to thank the support that we have had all year from parents and friends that have taken time to come out to watch us play.  It does mean a lot to me and our guys that we have the support we do.  I will post more about the Ball State Invitational soon as we get a little closer to it next week.  That event will be a little different in that we will play a 6 count 5 event which differs from our normal 5 count 4 events.  This is the only tournament of the year that we play like this which will showcase the teams with more depth.  We are looking forward to it as it allows another player tournament experience and further gets us ready for next year. 

I am getting better at updating my twitter account (@SIUEMensGolf) throughout the round if you would like to follow me. 

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and hope to see some of you at Ball State next week!

Coach Brown