The Event... The Northwestern College men's golf team resumes its 2009 fall season tomorrow as they take part in the Dordt College Invite. Play begins at The Ridge in Sioux Center, Iowa at 10:00 am. The Ridge is a new par 71 course and is over 7200 yards in length.
Teams... 12 teams will be participating in the meet tomorrow, including teams from Northwestern, Dordt, Briar Cliff, Buena Vista, Concordia, Dakota Wesleyan, Dana, Hastings, Morningside, U. of Sioux Falls, Wayne State and Midland Lutheran.
Last Time Out...Luke Vermeer carded an even-par 72 to finish second at the Morningside Invitational last Tuesday held at Whispering Creek Golf Club in Sioux City, Iowa.
Vermeer shot a 36 on both the front and back nines to earn runner-up medalist honors, two strokes behind medalist Cam Jacobs (Morningside) who carded a two-under 70.
The Raiders entered two teams in the Invite and finished third and fifth out of eight teams. The Northwestern Red team shot a 319, 12 shots in back of Morningside who grabbed the team championship. The White team shot a 331, seven shots in front of sixth place Morningside III.
In addition to Vermeer, Aaron Rozeboom tied for ninth place with an eight-over 80 (37/43). Michael Clark tied for 10th place, shooting an 81. For the White team, Eric Posthuma tied for sixth place with a seven-over 79 (36/43). Ross Kiewiet shot a 41 on both the front and back nines to end with an 82.
In 2008... Northwestern closed out its fall season with a sixth and 11th place finish at the 12-team Dordt College Invite last year at the LeMars Golf Club.
The men's varsity team carded a 309 and finished nine shots out of second place Hastings (300). Morningside ran away with the team title with a 290 while Hastings, USF (301), Briar Cliff (302) and the USF JV (307) round out the top five. The Red Raider red team placed 11th with a 333.
Luke Vermeer recorded his fourth top five finish of the fall season with a one-over 73 and tied for fourth place overall. Justin Pannkuk and Kyle McGranahan tied for 27th place with a 78 and Jamie Jeltema finished tied for 35th with an 80. Aaron Rozeboom led the red team with an 81 and tied for 38th place. Hans Vander Plaats carded an 82 and tied for 41st place.
The Lineup... Coach Bloemendaal will send two teams to compete on Thursday and possibly some individual players as well. For the varsity, the lineup includes Luke Vermeer, Michael Shields, Aaron Rozeboom, Johnny Schwaller and either Jon Roberts, Ross Kiewiet or Michael Dykema. The junior varsity lineup will feature either Roberts, Kiewiet or Dykema along with Eric Posthuma, Brian Tjepkes and Spencer Gort or Kaiser DeKam.
Red Raider Notes... Northwestern holds a 318.5 scoring average in two meets this season. They placed in the top six in both events with their best finish last time out (3rd at Morningside). Individually, Luke Vermeer carries the best scoring average (75) and has a pair of top 10 finishes. Eric Posthuma carded a 79 in his only meet (Morningside) while Aaron Rozeboom ranks third on the team with a 79.5 scoring average. Ross Kiewiet (80) and Michael Clark (82) are the other top golfers so far this season.
Up Next... Northwestern will host the first round of the GPAC Championship next Thursday, Sept. 17 at Landsmeer Golf Club in Orange City.
