While many fans in Columbia have their focus set on the return of Mizzou football Saturday, Missouri’s golf teams are set to kick their seasons off as well.
The men’s team begins its 2017 fall campaign this weekend at the Turning Stone-Tiger Intercollegiate in Verona, New York, on Sunday, while the women’s team will wait another week before it kick things off at the Jim West Challenge in The Woodlands, Texas.
Neither team finished last season the way it wanted to, but a new season brings new opportunities for the Tigers.
After finishing No. 12 out of 14 teams at last spring’s SEC championship, Mizzou women’s golf has been preparing to improve this fall season, with practices officially starting Saturday.
Sophomore Jessica Yuen remains a player to keep an eye on. In the spring of 2017, Yuen maintained a 73.00 stroke average, which is the second lowest for a single season in Mizzou women’s golf history. Yuen’s performance earned her a place on the 2017 Southeastern Conference women’s golf All-Freshman Team in May. One of eight freshmen selected to play, she holds other career honors, including competing in NCAA Regionals and making the 2016-17 SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll.
The 2017 team, primarily made up of juniors, welcomes freshman Julia Bower this fall. She is a Columbia native and graduate of Rock Bridge High School. Bower’s combined score of 149 (76-73) secured Rock Bridge’s second-place team finish at the Missouri state championships in fall 2016.
“We think it’s great that Julia chose Mizzou and that she will be joining our team next fall,” head coach Stephanie Priesmeyer said last November when Bower committed to Mizzou. “She is a very strong athlete that switched from competitive soccer to golf a few years ago. We believe her hard work ethic and determination to get better each day will drive her to be a wonderful addition to our team.”
Missouri’s men’s golf team will also have some upperclassmen to lead the way in 2017 but will need to mix in two new star freshmen. Freshmen Jack Parker and Jamie Stewart will both play a key role for the Tigers this upcoming season.
Parker, a Columbia native, attended Father Tolton Catholic High School, where he won three individual state championships while being ranked the No. 1 golfer in Missouri by the Junior Golf Scoreboard rankings. Stewart is from Renfrewshire, Scotland, and was ranked the No. 5 golfer in Scotland and the No. 19 golfer in all of Europe by the European Golf Rankings. In May, Stewart finished second at the 2017 English Open Amatuer Stroke Play Championship in England.
“We expect Jack and Jamie to contribute immensely for the Tigers in the future,” Coach Mark Leroux said last November via mutigers.com. “We will have a talented group of guys back for our 2017-18 squad, and they will both fit in well with their future teammates.”
The talented group of returning golfers will include three of the five players Missouri sent to the College Grove Regional last May, where the Tigers finished eighth. Sophomore Rory Franssen, junior Matt Echelmeier and senior Hayden Buckley all return hoping to qualify for the 2018 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship.
Other veteran leadership will come from senior Trevor Ullestad, redshirt junior Luigi Botta and junior Preston Fleenor. Last year, Ullestad finished top 10 at the Jackrabbit Invitational and top five at the Turning Stone Intercollegiate.
The Turning Stone Intercollegiate this weekend will be the only tournament the Tigers will participate in this September. They will not play again until Oct. 1, when they compete in the Jackrabbit Invitational in Valentine, Nebraska. They will not play in Columbia until April 9, when they host the Tiger Invitational at The Club at Old Hawthorne.
The women’s golf team will compete in two tournaments this September, the Jim West Challenge starting on Sept. 11 and the Mercedes Championship in Knoxville, Tennessee beginning Sept. 18. Last year, the Tigers placed 11th out of the 15 teams that competed at the Jim West Challenge. The team’s next home tournament will be the Johnie Imes Invitational, Oct. 2-4 at The Club at Old Hawthorne, where last season it placed first out of 15 teams.
This upcoming season will bring good competition for both the men’s and women’s teams as each team looks to expand off last season’s success and add new key competitors.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_
