The K-State men’s golf team will begin the three-day Golf Week Conference Challenge in Burlington, Iowa on Friday at Spirit Hollow Golf Course.
This will be the second tournament of the season for K-State after they competed in the Rod Myers Invitational two weeks prior to this weekend’s tournament. Coming off of an eighth-place finish in the season opener, the Wildcats will no doubt be looking to improve their team score.
“I thought we played well (in North Carolina),” head coach Grant Robbins said. “We had Oscar (Spolander) and Kyle (Weldon) play solid all week which was really good … I thought we missed an opportunity to finish well, but we saw some things we can work on and improve in practice.”
The challenge will host 14 opposing teams, including some very strong completion that Robbins said will help give his team a feel on where they stand at this point in the season.
“It’s a fantastic golf course to play on and it provides a tough challenge for us,” Robbins said. “The field is very strong. The defending national champions, LSU, will be there so it’ll be a good indication of how we’ll stack up against the nation’s best.”
Wildcat senior Kyle Weldon will look to match, or even improve, his finish from the first tournament where he tied for fifth place. Also looking to match his earlier results will be sophomore Oscar Spolander, who tied for 12th place in North Carolina.
Robbins is expecting good play out of those two golfers this weekend.
“(Weldon) is rock solid and as a senior he has the most experience,” Robbins said. “And (Spolander) keeps the ball in play and has a really good short game, which always helps in posting good scores.”
Five K-State golfers are competing in Burlington this weekend. Weldon will be leading the team along with junior golfer Matt Green. Spolander is the lone sophomore, while Jeremy Gandon and Roland Massimino will be freshman competitors.
The event will tee off beginning at 9 a.m. both Friday and Saturday. The final round on Sunday will begin at 8:30 a.m., with a shotgun start for all of the participating golfers.
