Scots Hosting NCAC Championships at Legends of Massillon

The Legends at Massillon | NCAC Team Standings | NCAC Individual Standings

For the first time since 1998, The College of Wooster golf program is serving as host of the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, which will take place this Saturday and Sunday, May 5-6, at the Legends of Massillon course in Massillon, Ohio. The Legends is home to three sets of nine holes – par-36, 3345-yard East Course, par-36, 3329-yard North Course, and par-36, 3553-yard South Course. All three courses will be used each day (South, North, East in that order), as the NCAC tourney is a 54-hole format.

This marks the 23rd year of the NCAC Golf Championships, however, there is a new wrinkle this season as a new championship scoring system has been underway during 2006-07 in reaction to the NCAA’s move to the automatic qualifying system. This tournament is the culmination of the conference’s new four-event championship, in which scores from the three required, 36-hole regular season events are also included to determine the overall NCAC champion.

Heading into the final event, Ohio Wesleyan University is in first-place, averaging 301.00 strokes per round as a team, followed by Allegheny College (307.17). There is a tight group vying for third-place, as Wittenberg University (315.17), Wooster (317.33), and Denison University (321.50) all have a chance to finish in that position. Rounding out the field are Wabash College (331.33), Hiram College (338.33), Kenyon College (350.67), and Oberlin College (365.00).

Individually, the defending medalist is in the field in the form of sophomore Chris Moore from Allegheny. He shot 69-77-72=218 to edge Ohio Wesleyan’s Rory Hotaling (70-71-78=219). Moore appears to be one of the top contenders again, as he ranks third among individuals from the first three NCAC events of the season with a 76.67 average. Tied for first at an even 75.00 are Jeff Nieman and Kyle Martin, both of the Battling Bishops, while others to note include Allegheny’s Mike Wolfe (77.83), Wittenberg’s Jeffrey Hochstetter (78.00), and Ohio Wesleyan’s Jesse Chiero and Wooster’s Andy Van Horn (Loudonville, Ohio / Loudonville), who are tied for sixth-place at 78.18.

In addition to Van Horn, who owns an overall season average of 79.3, the Scots will likely put junior Erik Shoger (Cleveland Hts., Ohio / Cleveland Heights), senior Matt Mellott (Baltimore, Md. / Friends School), junior Pat Lynch (Naperville, Ill. / Marmion Acad.), and sophomore Sean Glaser (McMurray, Pa. / Peters Township) in the lineup. They all average in the low 80s, with Shoger at 80.7, Mellott, who will be playing in his fourth NCAC Championships, at 81.4, Lynch at 81.5, and Glaser at 82.1.

Opening tee times are set for 8:30 a.m. each morning, with Hiram, Kenyon, and Oberlin opening the tournament Saturday. Wooster will tee off at 9:10 a.m. that day, and the lead pack on Sunday (top-three teams) are scheduled to go off at 9:50 a.m.