Hawkeyes will send five golfers to the Gopher Invitational in Minnesota for their first match of the season.

By Rod Engblom
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The Hawkeye men’s golf team will play its first match of the season at the Gopher Invitational on Sept. 13-14, at Windsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minnesota.

The Hawkeyes will go up against 14 teams including Minnesota, Iowa State, and Michigan. Each team will sending five players to the stroke-play event.

“We’ve been working really hard the past three weeks,” said Hawkeye junior Carson Schaake. “All the guys seem pretty ready, especially the five who are going.”

That five are senior Nate Yankovich, Schaake, junior Raymond Knoll, sophomore Sam Meuret, and freshman Matthew Walker.

Yanchovich feels confident after playing at the U.S. Amateur Tournament a few weeks back.

“It’s exciting to get back into the swing of things of tournament golf,” said Yankovich. “A lot of guys haven’t played tournament golf in a few weeks; I luckily played a few weeks ago in the U.S. Amateur, and I’m really excited to get back out and compete as a Hawkeye and to try to start out my senior season with a bang.”

Yanchovich hopes that the experience he’s gained at the U.S. Amateur will help him in Minnesota.

Not only do the individual players feel confident in themselves, the team as a whole seems to have good chemistry coming into this first meet.

“The spirit of the group is outstanding,” said head coach Tyler Stith. “They’re all very motivated and excited to get started and looking forward to the opportunity ahead.”

The confidence and the talent that the team has shown has given him a reason to feel confident in the team’s chances to grab a win in the tournament.

“We have a great opportunity to go up there and put ourselves in a position to win on the last day,” said Stith. “We just have to be ready to play from the first hole, which is something that we’ve talked about and are trying to do a better job of this year. It will be a very competitive field, but I fully expect us to be in contention come the last day with the chance to win.”

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