The Taylor men’s golf team opened the spring season at the Baker Invitational in Kansas, where the Trojans finished in 4th place of 10 teams, just one stroke out of the top three. Sophomore Tanner Conklin tied his best score of the year on day two, shooting a 72 and propelling him to his third top-ten finish of the season.
Just 10 days later, the Trojans travelled 45 minutes to Noblesville, IN, to compete at the Purgatory Intercollegiate, facing Crossroads League rivals No. 14 Indiana Wesleyan, Grace and Spring Arbor. Taylor took fourth overall, just one stroke behind the Lancers, who outpaced Taylor by nine strokes on day two. Junior Will Schuitema was Taylor’s top finisher, taking fourth overall, thanks to his score of 72 on day two.
The Blue Mountain Christian Spring Classic brought Taylor’s hardest challenge of the year from March 24 to 25. Finishing 10th out of 17 schools, the BMC Spring Classic featured some top contenders for the Red Banner this year, with No. 3 Dalton State taking the event win and No. 22 Point finishing in a far second place by 29 strokes.
Taylor still showed a strong performance, beating out No. 20 Faulker and No. 25 Blue Mountain, keeping them out of the top ten team performances of the day. Freshman Porter Dick claimed Taylor’s top finish of the afternoon, hitting 73, 75, 73, good enough to tie for 12th place individually.
Taylor’s roster is dynamic, and any athlete could step up and take the lead for the Trojans if need be. Four separate golfers finished at least once as Taylor’s top golfer, led by freshman Porter Dick with three top-taylor finishers and one event win.
“I've really been able to develop the small things like green reading and judging how the ball is going to react around the greens and on approach shots,” Dick said of his performance on the season. “During the fall semester, I felt like I made a lot of wrong decisions on the course and through a lot of intentional practice, I have been able to make the correct decisions this semester.”
Dick and the Trojans are back in action at the Kampen-Cosler Invitational on April 14 in West Lafayette, IN.
—------------------------------------------------
Ranked the No. 19 team in the nation, the Taylor women’s golf team is fighting for a place in the top 20 teams in the NAIA.
Their spring season started much like their fall campaign, with an event win at the Baker Invitational in Lawrence, KS. Freshman Eleanor Schuitema led the way with her first event win of her Taylor career, tying her career low with a 71.
After starting her second day with a +2 in her first nine holes, Schuitema banked in back-to-back birdies on holes 10 and 11, propelling her to finish with a -3 through the back nine. While excited to claim her first-ever event win, Schuitema said there’s ‘room for improvement,’ even in her best round of the year.
Next, Taylor took on the Purgatory Intercollegiate, where they led through the first day of the event, three strokes ahead of No. 13 Indiana Wesleyan, but the Wildcats stormed back with a vengeance on day two, shooting an astonishing 17 strokes better than the day before, finishing with a 303 on round two.
The Trojans slotted in second place as Trojans filled out the top 10, with Schuitema in fourth, junior Margarita Garrido one shot behind her in fifth and junior Shayne Lim tied for seventh.
The first event of April, the Roadrunner Invitational, presented the stiffest competition Taylor faced this season. The Trojans competed with some of the top teams in the NAIA like No. 4 Dalton State, No. 18 Loyola (LA) and No. 3 SCAD Savannah, who took first in the event by a lead of 17 strokes.
With 13 teams in the field, Taylor finished in the middle of the pack in seventh place. Despite not reaching the podium, the invite was arguably one of Taylor’s most important performances, finishing two strokes ahead of No. 5 Marian, five strokes clear of No. 14 William Carey and nine strokes above No. 13 Indiana Wesleyan.
“We were discouraged at first (with the seventh-place finish), and then we realized we beat both Indiana Wesleyan and Marian, which are the two best teams in the Crossroads League,” Schuitema said. “That was really encouraging that we could beat them because we want to beat them, obviously, in conference, but it was…very enlightening that we have a lot of room for improvement.”
The top 20 teams in the NAIA are invited to the NAIA National Championships, and Taylor will continue their journey to Ypsilanti, MI at the Kampen-Cosler Invitational in West Lafayette, IN on April 14.
