Scots’ Nye Intercollegiate Third NCAC Event of Season

The College of Wooster will continue a 39-year tradition this Saturday and Sunday, April 19-20, 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, 6,545-yard Wooster Country Club once again.

Thirty-three 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 season’s Nye Intercollegiate will be slightly different than the past in that it is the third of four conference events. The results from this weekend’s 36 holes, plus two NCAC fall tourneys and the final such event on May 3-4, will be totaled up to determine the 2007-08 NCAC standings. So, competing at the Nye Intercollegiate will be the nine conference schools, plus Muskingum College, Notre Dame (Ohio) College, and Olivet College. Tee times begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, with Wooster scheduled to go off at 11 a.m. Action will start at the same time on Sunday, while the top-three teams are scheduled to take the course at 11:45 a.m.

Missing from this spring’s 12-team field is four-time defending champion, Otterbein College, which won by six strokes last year with a total score of 630. Instead, the favorites will be the NCAC’s Ohio Wesleyan University and Allegheny College, ranked No. 9 and No. 17, respectively, in the latest NCAA Div. III coaches’ poll. The Scots, who last won their own tourney in 1998, are coming off a sixth-place finish at last year’s Nye Intercollegiate when the field consisted of 16.

Wooster is led by Pat Lynch (Naperville, Ill. / Marmion Academy), as the second-team all-NCAC honoree from a season ago carries a team-low 76.7 scoring average. Fellow seniors Jason Greenwald (North Bethesda, Md. / Sherwood), Jim Ipema (Western Springs, Ill. / Lyons Township), and Erik Shoger (Cleveland Hts., Ohio / Cleveland Heights) also will likely be in the lineup. Greenwald led the Scots in both rounds at last week’s Strimer Memorial Invitational with an 81 and a 76, giving him a 79.1 strokes-per-round mark for the year. Ipema’s average is also below 80 (79.6), while others expected to participate are junior Sean Glaser (McMurray, Pa. / Peters Township) and sophomore Tim Sullivan (Bethel Park, Pa. / Seton-LaSalle).

Last Week: On April 12-13, Wooster sliced 10 strokes off its first round score during day two of Ohio Wesleyan University’s Strimer Memorial Invitational for a 652 total, resulting in an eighth-place finish out of 11 teams.

Individually, Jason Greenwald (North Bethesda, Md. / Sherwood) led the Scots both rounds with an 81 and a 76, tying for 14th-place overall (157). Also scoring both days were Pat Lynch (Naperville, Ill. / Marmion Academy) and Tim Sullivan (Bethel Park, Pa. / Seton-LaSalle), as Lynch carded 85-79 to tie for 32nd (164) and Sullivan fired 83-82 to tie for 37th (165). Completing Wooster’s starting lineup were Erik Shoger (Cleveland Hts., Ohio / Cleveland Heights) and Jim Ipema (Western Springs, Ill. / Lyons Township), who tied for 50th- (86-84) and 59th-place (82-94), respectively.