Following Men’s Golf’s impressive showing at the MIAC Championships last fall, where First-year Chris Captain beat the whole field and led the Gusties to a second place finish, the team has had a spring of up and downs. The colder spring season lead to a lot of travelling. They competed in Florida, Georgia, and Illinois before playing their first home tournament on April 19.
“We came out of the spring season playing pretty good, considering it had been a long time since the October’s MIAC event. Ball striking was good, a little work needed around greens, but that is always the case. Our showing at the MIAC tournament was a sign of things ahead, and Captain winning the individual title was special,” Coach Scott Moe said.
Moe graduated from Gustavus in 1995 and began coaching the golf team shortly after. In 18 years, Moe has witnessed a lot change. One of the biggest additions came last winter when the Drenttel family generously donated a new facility to the program. Along with the excitement of the new facility, Moe believes his team will be even stronger next year.
“The opening of the Drenttel Golf Facility is huge for our program. The work our athletes put in during the off season really paid off, and it will be fantastic for the future of our program. Our top five players will all return next year, which is positive. We will need some players to step up as leaders to replace our seniors, but I feel great about the future of Gustavus Golf,” Moe said.
Junior Andrew Brandt shares the enthusiasm of his coach.
“I have been really happy with the way the team has played this season thus far. We played against some great competition down in Atlanta for Emory’s event and ended up finishing slightly lower than we wanted. When we got back to Minnesota to play in our home tournament and St. John’s event we were very prepared. It has been fun seeing some of the young guys really tap into their potential and show how well they can play,” Brandt said.
Brandt had a strong showing this weekend at the St. Johns Spring Invitational, helping his team to a second place finish with his 229 (+5) over three rounds. However, he is already looking forward to the weekend in which the team will wrap up the season against some of the conference rivals.
“We play against Bethel, Eau Claire, and Augsburg and the expectations are to go and come away with a win. Going out with a win would really provide a lot of momentum and confidence heading into the fall,” Brandt said.
Another golfer who has found good form during the spring is Matt Spier. After becoming the MIAC-Golfer-of-the-Week for his performances in Florida, Spier have been continued to be solid in his game and scored a remarkable 69 (-2) on the second round at St. John’s.
“Our spring season has been solid thus far. We have a win under our belt and finished second last weekend. This should put us in a great spot for the fall season. My goal was to come into the spring season and play smarter golf and be more mentally prepared and in doing those things I have had good success this spring,” Spier said.
For Coach Moe, there is one outcome that would be significantly better than any other this weekend.

“The opening of the Drenttel Golf Facility is huge for our program. The work our athletes put in during the off-season really paid off and it will be fantastic for the future of our program. Our top five players will all return next year, which is positive.”—Coach Scott Moe

“We expect to win. We can beat every team in our conference when we play well, so we expect that each time out. I would not be surprised if we do win, but we will need to play well, as our conference is one of the toughest in the country,” Moe said.
The last tournament of the year takes place at StoneRidge Country Club, hosted by UW-Eau Claire. The women’s team will round off their season this weekend as well, competing in Eau Claire May 2 and May 3.

-Philip Evans