On Monday, the Southwestern men's golf team will tee off at TPC San Antonio for Round 1 of the San Antonio Shootout. The Pirates begin their spring season on a mission to reclaim their spot atop the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC).
The Pirates' run of three consecutive SCAC Championships ended in 2019, with the University of Dallas dethroning Southwestern by four strokes in the 2019 SCAC Championships.
Southwestern hasn't competed in the conference tournament since due to athletics shutting down in the spring of 2020 at the start of the pandemic and the Pirates missing the 2021 conference tournament after an outbreak of COVID-19.
Defending conference champion Trinity was nationally-ranked early in the fall until a poor performance at the Golfweek Invitational sent the Tigers plummeting to 102 in the Golfstat rankings. Southwestern sits at No. 54 after a few uneven performances in the fall, and a young Dallas team is up at No. 32.
"I believe the conference is wide open this year," Southwestern head golf coach Greg Sigler declares. "Trinity's current rank is misleading because they're a really strong team, Dallas is young, and Schreiner and TLU are scrappy. The conference championship will come down to whoever is playing their best golf heading into the conference tournament."
Strong finishes have been a learning process this young Southwestern team is still trying to grasp. Southwestern put together solid stretches of golf in the fall but couldn't sustain them across multiple rounds.
"The fall season was a little disappointing. We had some excellent qualifying scores going into events, and it just didn't translate to our tournament play," Sigler says. "In the past, our teams have always been able to get stronger as tournaments wore on. It's something we're still trying to figure out, but the guys put in a lot of good work over the break, so hopefully, the results will be there in the spring."
Consistency is a process for a talented young roster that graduated one of its two seniors over winter break and leans heavily on three of its four juniors and two freshmen. Of Southwestern's eight-man roster, only senior Thomas Kuznar has completed a full collegiate season.
"Golf is a streaky sport. You have times where you're playing really well and others where you're trying to figure everything out," Sigler says. "It's a lot more beneficial to have a consistent schedule with consistent practice routines. With COVID and the winter storms last year, it's been challenging to get into a routine. You try to peak at the right time consistently, but that's tough when you don't know what's going to happen from week to week."
In many ways, the play of Christian Rodriguez last fall reflects the promise and growing pains of this Southwestern team. Rodriguez leads the Pirates in the Golfstat rankings at No. 37 with an adjusted scoring average of 73.20. In Southwestern's final two events last fall, Rodriguez ended the first day in the top two on the individual leaderboard with an opportunity to win the Alamo City Classic and Golfweek Invitational before fading to a fourth and eighth-place finish.
"The Alamo Classic was the first time he'd ever sat on the lead after the first day, and he just wasn't used to being in that position. Then at Golfweek, he proved he could play with anyone after a top-10 finish against some of the best players in Division III," Sigler exclaims. "He gained a lot of know-how sitting on a lead like that, and I expect his growth to continue with Christian putting himself in position to win each tournament."
Juniors Austin Kelley and Nicholas Hoisington join Rodriguez as regular mainstays in Southwestern's five-man tournament lineups. Kelley has conference individual medalist potential, as apparent by his 2021 West Region Invitational victory against a field that featured all the SCAC teams.
After earning West All-Region honors last spring, Kelley used the fall to work on changes to his swing that should benefit him in the spring.
"He was all-region last year, so he's capable of strong seasons. This fall, his scores weren't where he wanted them to be, but the adjustments he's making are a process," Sigler explains. "He's still a better player than he was last year; the results just need to catch up. With the work he's been doing and the experience he has on the courses we'll be playing, once he gets into a flow, he's going to be really good for us."
Hoisington finished the fall as the only other Pirate in the top 100 at No. 96, with an adjusted scoring average of 74.01.
"He played some big amateur tournaments and worked with his swing coach over the break and made a few changes," Sigler says. "The one thing that was holding him back was putting, and he put in a lot of work there. He's gotten stronger over the offseason, and he's a smart kid. I think he's due for a good spring semester."
Kuznar brings solid depth at the back of the lineup, while freshmen Matthew Peesker and Bryce Stiemert gained experience with tournament team appearances in the fall to give a preview of Southwestern's future.
"Thomas is a great teammate and has always been a solid 74-to-76 golfer. He shot a few rounds under par in qualifiers last fall, so he's getting a little more comfortable, and I'm rooting for him to have his best semester yet," Sigler says. "We'll be graduating a lot of seniors next year, and Matthew and Bryce are getting good experience early that will help them transition into leadership roles down the line. I see them developing into outstanding players for us."
Southwestern will have two opportunities to face competitive fields with programs from across the nation, starting with the San Antonio Shootout.
"We're diving headfirst into the spring semester against strong teams at the most difficult course we'll see until maybe the national championships," Sigler says. "It'll be a good start because if we play that course well, we can play anywhere."
The Pirates will follow that with a March 7 trip to Kerrville, Texas, for the Schreiner Shootout and the immaculate greens of Comanche Trace before traveling to Jekyll Island, Georgia, to compete at the Jekyll Island Collegiate Invitational on spring break.
"It's probably the biggest tournament in DIII with 30 teams on the men's side," Sigler says. "Honestly, it's going to have a better field than the national championship will. It's one of the most fun, competitive tournaments we'll play."
Southwestern will close its regular season hosting the Berry Creek Invitational from April 4-5, followed by the SCAC Championships at Vaaler Creek in Blanco, Texas, from April 17-19.
"The guys worked hard and put in a lot of work over the break, so hopefully the results will show in the spring," Sigler says. "With Jekyll and the TPC, we've got enough quality tournaments coming up where if we play well, we can really move up in the field. But we have to play well because no one is going to give it to us."