Scot Linksters Welcoming 13 Teams in for Nye Intercollegiate

The College of Wooster will continue a 38-year tradition this Friday and Saturday, April 13-14, when it hosts a college golf tournament. Currently named the Nye Intercollegiate to honor one of the legendary families in NCAA Div. III golf and formerly known as the Wooster Invitational, it will take place at the par-72, 6545-yard Wooster Country Club once again.   
    Thirty-two years ago, head coach Bob Nye guided the Scots to their only national championship (in any sport), and overall, he led Wooster to five conference titles, 11 top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, and 26 tournament wins during his storied tenure. Two of Nye’s best players were his sons, Scott and Greg Nye. They’re the program’s only four-time All-Americans. Greg was a key player on that 1975 national-championship team, the individual national runner-up in 1977, and medalist at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships twice. Scott, a 1985 Wooster graduate, finished as high as third individually at an NCAA Tournament (1983) and was the medalist at the first-ever North Coast Athletic Conference Championships (1985).
    This week’s 36-hole event welcomes in a slightly smaller field than usual, as 14 teams from across the Great Lakes Region will compete for both team and individual honors. Joining the Fighting Scots will be Albion College, Baldwin-Wallace College, Capital University, Denison University, DePauw University, Heidelberg College, Hiram College, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Olivet College, Otterbein College, Wabash College, and Wittenberg University. Tee times begin at 9 a.m. Friday, with Wooster scheduled to go off at 11:48 a.m. as part of the last group, while the top-three teams will then kick off Saturday’s action at 10 a.m.  
    Otterbein won last year’s team title by 14 strokes with a score of 596 over the two days, including a tournament-tying round of 294 the second 18 holes. The Cardinals have won at Wooster’s annual event seven of the last eight seasons, and will be a favorite again, currently ranked No. 21 in Div. III. The Scots, who last won their own tourney in 1998, have finished in the middle of the pack the past four years (8th of 18 in 2006, T-7th of 16 in 2005, 8th of 17 in 2004, 9th of 15 in 2003).   
    Wooster and most of the rest of the squads are simply looking to get some live competition in this weekend after several cancellations due to the weather last weekend, including Denison’s Ted Barclay Invitational, where the Scots were slated to participate at. Wooster, which was the runner-up at the previous week’s Kenyon Invitational, is led by Andy Van Horn (Loudonville, Ohio / Loudonville) with a 78.8 scoring average. The rest of the starting five hovers in the low 80s – Erik Shoger (Cleveland Hts., Ohio / Cleveland Heights), Pat Lynch (Naperville, Ill. / Marmion Acad.), Sean Glaser (McMurray, Pa. / Peters Township), and Matt Mellott (Baltimore, Md. / Friends School). Shoger enters this weekend at 80.9, followed closely by Lynch at 81.1, while Glaser and Mellott are at 82.2 and 82.4, respectively.  

    Last Tournament: All five Scot golfers in the starting lineup were among the top-12 of the individual standings at the seven-team Kenyon Invitational, and Wooster finished a season-best second-place while playing at the par-72, 6946-yard Apple Valley Golf Course in Howard, Ohio.
    The Scots were just one stroke back of Wittenberg after Saturday’s round, but couldn’t overcome the rival Tigers during the second 18 holes, as Wittenberg ended up with a 629 total to Wooster’s 636. The remainder of the field was well back, consisting of Madonna University (655), host Kenyon (661), Albion (683), Hiram (701), and Oberlin (725).
    Leading the Scots was Pat Lynch (Naperville, Ill. / Marmion Academy), who shot 80-77, with the latter being the third-lowest round overall Sunday. Lynch’s 157 total put him in a three-way tie for second individually, behind medalist Andrew Flint of Wittenberg (79-76).
    Playing his first tournament of the spring, Andy Van Horn (Loudonville, Ohio / Loudonville) came in fifth-place (78-81), while Wooster’s Sean Glaser (McMurray, Pa. / Peters Township) also came in the top-10, tying for ninth (79-82). One stroke behind was teammate Erik Shoger (Cleveland Hts., Ohio / Cleveland Heights), who finished alone in 11th (80-82), and another shot back was Matt Mellott (Baltimore, Md. / Friends School) as he tied for 12th (84-79).
    Also of note, the Scots’ Tim Sullivan (Bethel Park, Pa. / Seton-LaSalle) played as an individual. He turned in the second-best score on Saturday with a 77, but followed it up with a 91 to end in a tie for 20th-place (168).