Golf begins with high hopes
The Northern Kentucky men’s and women’s golf teams both enter the spring season with high expectations after a successful fall season.
Coach Daryl Landrum is in his eighth year as coach for both teams.
His wife Becky returns as an assistant.
The men’s spring season kicks off Tuesday, March 9 at Melbourne Beach in Melbourne, Florida against the Florida Institute of Technology and Minnesota State.
Four golfers who qualified for last season’s NCAA Division II Regional Tournament return: seniors Brandon Parsons and Glenn Davidson, junior Curtis Phelps, and sophomore Jerod Cahill.
Cahill had a good fall season, including finishing as medalist at the NKU Invitational in September.
“I think we have the potential to go to the NCAA Regional Tournament again,” Landrum said.
“I think we beat people with consistency. We’ve got about seven guys on the team who can all shoot under 75.”
Landrum also believes newcomer David Shearer from Charlevoix, Michigan will be a valuable asset; not only this season, but in the future.
“He’s a great player; he knows how to play in bad weather,” Landrum said.
“He’s going to help us for a long time. He’s a future All-American.”
The women enter the spring atop the GLVC team standings.
They began their season February 28 at the Florida Southern Invitational Tournament at Cleveland Heights in Lakeland, Florida.
They compete against other top schools such as Florida Tech, Western Florida, Western New Mexico University, Grand Valley State University, and Florida Southern College, which is hosting the tournament.
Going into the spring, the women are one of four GLVC teams ranked in the National Top 20.
The University of Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and the University of Indianapolis are the other ranked schools that will be competing with the Lady Norse for top billing in the conference.
NKU has three returning regional qualifiers.
The qualifiers are senior Nicole Weber, junior Lindsay Newton, and two-time All-American junior Kim Keyer-Scott.
Keyer-Scott enters the spring with the second lowest scoring average in Women’s NCAA Division II Golf.
She captured medalist honors at the GLVC Championships in October.
The women host the NKU Invitational March 27-28 at Perry Park.
The NCAA Regional Tournaments begin on May 3 at Ferris State for the women, and May 2 at Lassing Pointe for the men.