The weather on campus in Madison is beginning to look a little bit more like spring, but the Wisconsin men's golf team isn't waiting around for the snow to melt. Instead, head coach Jim Schuman's squad is traveling to Pauma Valley, Calif., where they will play 36 holes Monday and 18 more Tuesday for the San Francisco Invitational. Scoring will be a five-count-four format where the top four scores in each round are counted toward the team total.
The Badgers are coming off of a dual-meet win over Florida Gulf Coast. The meet in Naples was the first competition of the spring season. According to Schuman, the win was important in building momentum for the second half of the year as well as for highlighting aspects of the game that need some more work.
"I thought it was great to come out of the weather that we've had lately, get down there, and play a really quality team," Schuman said. "I thought we did a lot of great things, but I don't think our short games and putting were as sharp as they needed to be."
The Badgers will be led by senior Garrett Jones and sophomore Dan Woltman. Accompanying these two players will be Jeff Kaiser, Pat Duffy and Jordan Elsen.
Woltman, a Wisconsin native but a transfer from Kentucky, led the Badgers in scoring average during the fall season (71.4 strokes per round). Jones, the team's senior leader, paced Wisconsin in its dual meet in Florida, winning all of his matches.
At the beginning of the season, deciding which five players to start can be a difficult task for a coach, particularly at a northern school like Wisconsin where the weather does not allow for golf outdoors year-round. Still Schuman feels confident in his decisions after watching his players hit balls and practice their short games inside in a dome. Additionally, the meet in Florida gave the coach an even better look.
"We got to see all the guys play [in Naples]," Schuman said. "So we've got a pretty good indication of who's at what stage with their game.
Wisconsin will be one of 16 teams teeing it up at Pauma Valley Country Club. PVCC, a par 71 track measuring in at nearly 7,100 yards, was designed by legendary golf course designer Robert Trent Jones Sr. Jones has also designed such masterpieces as Spyglass Hill and Oak Hill.
"It offers you a little bit of everything," Schuman said of PVCC. "There are some elevated greens, some holes that are stretched out pretty long. It puts pressure on your all-around game. You have to do everything well there. You have to know what you're doing well and really manage yourself around that golf course."
This week's field includes district foe Notre Dame. Beating teams within the district is particularly important as it is district rankings that ultimately determine which teams make the NCAA tournament at the season's close. According to the latest Golfweek poll, Wisconsin currently sits at No. 3 in its district and will look to solidify that position this week.
"We have opportunities here before us this spring that we will need to be prepared to take advantage of, and I think the guys are in the right frame of mind," Schuman said.
Wisconsin's next opportunity will start today in sunny California. A win in the first full-field competition of the season would not only continue the team's winning ways, but would also generate a lot of confidence for the remainder of the spring.
