By Taylor Smith
Sports Editor
After finishing second in the NCAC standings for the fourth straight year, the Ohio Wesleyan menâs golf team looks forward to continuing their winning streak.
The team lost one senior from last year, Jerry Moore, a two-time first-team All-NCAC honoree and a pivotal member of the team the past three seasons. But the team also lost several other players who transferred, which is why they only return six lettermen this year.
Amongst those letterman is junior captain Kaneat Nimcharoenwan who finished second, individually, in the conference last year, was named to the first-team All-NCAC team and was named to the PING All-Great Lakes All-Region team.
Head coach Ian Miller said this yearâs team is capable of being better than last yearâs team, but the players âneed to put everything they have together and practice.â
âWe have the ability to be a lot better; weâre definitely deeper,â he said. âWe talked about consistency in the four and five spots. We have the ability to be consistently better in those spots, but you also have to remember weâre looking for four freshmen to make impacts. Sometimes just getting them adjusted and confident here in the first couple of months is the challenge⊠Itâs just a matter of putting it into play right now and preparing properly.â
The team has already completed two tournaments this fall, tying for 7th of 19 at the Transylvania Invitational on Sept. 7 and 8 and finishing 11th of 12 at the John Piper Intercollegiate Sept. 16 and 17. The latter was hosted by Bowling Green State University and consisted of teams from all three NCAA divisions.
Miller said while there are individuals doing well and each player may have his own struggles, the team as a whole lacks consistency in competition.
âOne guy struggled with his putter this week for example, another struggled with the mental side and another hit more fairways than greens,â Miller said. âItâs an individual thing, there isnât across the board one thing, weâve indentified that and we know what weâre going to work on this week and try to fix each guyâs inconsistencies.â
Nimcharoenwan said he agreed with his coach regarding the teamâs consistency. He also said he thinks most of the things wrong with the teamâs performance is its mentality.
âIf they donât trust themselves to shoot a low score, they will never hit it,â he said. âThey just have to play more often and keep trying to put themselves in a position to play golf well and build their confidence.â
Miller and Nimcharoenwan both said one player who isnât struggling with his confidence and is able to play well most of the time is freshman Chris Pavelic.
Pavelic has been the Bishopsâ top finisher at both tournaments, taking medals in his first collegiate golf tournament at Transylvania and tying for 23rd at John Piper.
Miller said Pavelic has been adjusting pretty well to the college golf environment and his striking ability gives him a bit of an edge.
âWeâve played both tournaments about 7,000 yards, and thatâs not a bother to him,â Miller said. âThe day-in and day-out practice and then tournament weekend after weekend type thing will be his biggest adjustment, but so far heâs handled it pretty well.â
Pavelic said college golf is completely different than playing in high school, but it is pretty similar to junior tournaments heâs participated in.
Nimcharoenwan said Pavelic has extraordinary confidence and stays mentally strong while on the golf course.
âHe just goes into tournaments wanting to play well and approaches every round the same, treating it like practice,â Nimcharoenwan said. âHe doesnât worry about significance or other people in the tournament.â
Pavelic said in an email that he plays golf to compete and have fun and knows he can always improve.
âI go out there each day with the same attitude to put the ball in play, hit some greens and make some putts, but most important is to have fun while your doing it,â he said. âI still havenât played my best golf and I have tons of room to improve.â
Pavelic said he didnât expect to win his first collegiate golf tournament, but stayed confident and held out for the win.
As for the rest of the season, Miller said the teamâs only current focus is the Gordin Classic. The tournament honors former OWU menâs golf coach Dick Gordin, who coached the Bishops from 1955 to 1993.
Named the NCAA Division III Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1993, Gordin led 22 of his final 25 teams to the NCAA Division III or College Division championship tournaments. He brought home six top-five finishes in his final eight years of coaching and 12 league titles (seven in the Ohio Athletic Conference and five from the NCAC) over a span of five decades.
The Classic is held annually and features Ohio Wesleyan and the top 11 NCAA Division III teams from the previous yearâs NCAA championship tournament.
OWU will host the tournament Monday, Sept. 30, and Tuesday, Oct. 1, at the Columbus Country Club. Miller said while he doesnât like the term âexpectationsâ and setting them for his players, he does have think the Bishops can finish well if they do what needs to be done.
âIf we go in and play well and prepare and have confidence going in, I would think a top five finish would be great,â he said. âIf we play really well we can definitely do better than that.
âWe didnât set a goal for what our finish should be for that tournament, we just want to go out each day of practice and each day at the event and worry what we have to worry about and the score will dictate at the end where we finish, and we have no control of that. Weâre just going to control what we can control and go from there.â