Doeden Leads Gopher Men to Ninth at Gopher Invitational at Windsong Farm

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By Nick Hunter
nhunter@mngolf.org


  INDEPENDENCE, Minn. – The University of Minnesota men’s golf team opened the 2016-17 season by carding a team score of 295 Sunday to finish tied for ninth at the team’s only home tournament, the Gopher Invitational at Windsong Farm.

Sunday’s finish is the best since a fourth-place finish to begin the 2014-15 season and a vast improvement from last season’s 14th-place finish in a tournament typically featuring teams regularly competing in the NCAA tournament.

The University of California, University of Oklahoma, University of Arkansas and the University of Washington all finished last season ranked inside the top-25 nationally according to golfstat.com. The Gophers, currently ranked 109th by Golfweek, won the inaugural event at Spring Hill to open the 2005-06 season, but have not placed better than third since the beginning of the 2009-2010 season.

Posting a final round team score of 287 Sunday, Oklahoma overcame a two-stroke deficit to defeat San Diego State University by five shots to successfully defend its Gopher Invitational title, a tournament first.

The Sooners got a big boost from Grant Hirschman, who birdied his final hole to earn medalist honors Sunday, shooting 2-under par 69 during the final round.

The Gophers were led by senior Justin Doeden who fired a 1-under par 70 for the second consecutive round to finish tied for 11th at 216, the second best finish of his career as Doeden placed tenth at the Husky Invitational last fall.

Doeden, Prior Lake, Minn., got off to a bit of a shaky start to the 2016-17 season Saturday, carding a 5-over par 76 during a round which included six bogeys and a double-bogey.

During the second round Saturday, Doeden bounced back despite carding a pair of early bogeys, rolling in three consecutive birdies on his back nine to card a 1-under par 70.

“Yesterday was a little bit of a grind to start and, honestly, a little rusty. It’s been about three weeks since I played in a tournament and I was a little nervous as well,” he said. “Once I got settled down, I started hitting a lot of good shots.

“I was committing to lines and putts started to fall and I started to play good golf. I hit a lot of greens.”

Playing his most consistent round in recent weeks despite wind gusts near 30 mph, Doeden began the final round on the back nine Sunday and rolled in consecutive pars before sinking his birdie look at the par-4 14th.

Doeden gave back a shot with a birdie at the 15th, but came right back with another birdie at the 15th. Doeden would post 11 straight pars to finish with his second round of 70 and in a tie for 11th at 3-over par 216.

“The course was tough, but it was setup really nice,” Doeden said of the windy conditions Sunday. “Holes that were into the wind were up and the holes downwind were back. The pins were fair.

“I wanted to come in and play hard and as good as I can,” said of his mindset to open a new season with a strong performance. “It’s so important both physically and mentally. This game is so mental—you can hit good shots, but you also need to have the results, and I did that today.”

Though he’s one of five Gopher seniors on the squad this season, Doeden says he knowingly and willingly steps into a leadership role for younger players.

“I’m a senior and I want to set the bar for the younger guys,” he said. “I hope they see how hard I worked the summer and I think I did that today. I’m not officially a captain, but I take on that responsibility to be a leader and I try to do that with my play.

“We have hard workers on this team; we have 13 guys who are willing to put in the time to get where we want to be. We want to be top-60 coming into the year and we want to get to regionals, we don’t want to be done come [Big 10 Tournament]. For me, I want to move on past regionals and get to the Big Dance.”

Doeden played in 11 tournaments for the Gophers last year and finished his season with a 74.25 stroke average. He finished tied for 28th at the 113th Minnesota Golf Association State Amateur Championship and tied for 38th at the Minnesota State Open shortly after.

Junior Riley Johnson posted a 3-over par 74 during Sunday’s final round to finish tied for 27th at 220 following back-to-back rounds of 73 to open the championship Saturday.

Johnson, Fargo, N.D., began his final round on the back nine with three bogeys over the first four holes but would recover with a birdie at the 14th. Johnson would make just one bogey over the final 13 holes to shoot 74.

Senior Jose Mendez, who won the Big 10 individual title as a freshman in 2014, finished his final Gopher Invitational tied for 37th Sunday after posting a final-round 76.

Mendez, San Jose, Costa Rica, battled a back injury during most of his junior season, playing in just four tournaments. He has three collegiate victories to his credit, all of which came during his freshman campaign.

For head coach John Carlson, who enters his seventh season with the Gophers and sixth season as head coach, he said he takes a number of positives away from a top-10 finish against a strong field to begin the season.

“I was proud of the way our guys responded after the adversity with the wind today—we came out ready to play,” he said Sunday. “Our first nine [of the tournament] was our best nine holes. We didn’t follow that up with 18 holes after that very well, but we had a strong finish yesterday. Today we started off poorly, but boy did we finish well. We were 3-over as a team for the last 15 collective holes. For four guys to go out and do that was impressive.

“Great playing by Justin Doeden—he was great from tee to green all week long. He walked with confidence and he played like he’s ready to take the reins this year, which is exciting. I’m looking forward to him and Riley Johnson having breakout years." 

Carlson said he was impressed by freshman Thomas Longbella’s composure to begin his collegiate career with the Gophers this week, carding a 2-over par 73 during the opening round despite writing five birdies on his scorecard.

“He showed signs of incredible play and made a lot of birdies,” Carlson said. “Yesterday afternoon he didn’t have a very good back nine at all and makes eagle to finish the day to help our team. Today, in this wind, he shot 3-over par with just a couple loose swings. He didn’t putt the ball nearly as well as he hoped, but he’s talented and he’s going to be ready to play.”

Longbella, from Chippewa Falls, Wis., competed in two U.S. Junior Amateur Championships as well as the 2014 Junior PGA Championship. He won the WIAA Division III State Championship by seven shots and earned medalist honors in 30 of 40 high school events.

This year’s Gopher squad is one of the bigger teams in recent years with 14 players on the roster. Jon DuToit, the 2013 Minnesota State Open champion and 2015 MGA State Amateur champion, exits after graduating this spring and Tom Vining departs after playing nine tournaments for the Gophers during his freshman season before transferring to the University of South Dakota.

Minnesota adds current MGA State Amateur champion, Alex Uloth, who sank a 30-foot eagle putt on the final hole to edge current teammate Riley Johnson in July. Uloth played his first two seasons of college golf at Concordia University-St. Paul.

“You don’t plan on transfers. They come to us seeking a transfer and you add a Justin Doeden to the roster because he’s talented and he’s ready to play," Carlson said of his  It’s a similar situation with [Uloth]; he was asking for a release and wanted to play Division I golf. He’s a Minnesota native and people in the state get excited about Minnesota players on the team.”

With nine upperclassmen, Carlson believes this is the year for the Gophers to make a run at a Big Ten title, which it won in 2014.

“These guys seem like they want to be more prepared; they have more energy and their willingness to be coached,” Carlson said of what he sees in this year’s team. “They kind of soak things up and I saw it when they go to the range in the morning—everyone’s ready for the day.

“This week is a step in the right direction. Beating SMU, Washington and Pepperdine—all three NCAA tournament teams last year—we knew coming into this week that we had to prove it on our home golf course. These guys all have good short games so in order to contend with these other teams, we need to make less mistakes off the tee.”



2016 GOPHER INVITATIONAL
WINDSONG FARM
INDEPENDENCE, MINN.
7,388 YARDS, PAR 71


FINAL TEAM RESULTS
1. Oklahoma, 284-289-287—860
2. San Diego State, 289-282-294—865
3. Michigan State, 292-284-290—866
4. Kent State, 286-290-296—872
5. New Mexico, 291-290-293—874
6. Arkansas, 289-284-303—876
7. Iowa, 295-291-293—879
8. California, 303-277-301—881
T9. Charlotte, 296-295-293—884
T9. MINNESOTA, 298-291-295—884
T11. Pepperdine, 295-296-295—886
T11. Southern Methodist Univ., 303-289-294—886
13. Washington, 298-295-296—889
14. MINNESOTA (B), 301-302-307—910
15. ST. JOHN’S (MINN.), 309-294-314—917


FINAL INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1. Grant Hirschman, Oklahoma, 68-73-69—210
2. Sam Weatherhead, Michigan St., 70-69-72—211
3. Dylan Deogum, Michigan St., 72-70-70—212
4. Raymond Knoll, Iowa, 72-68-73—213
T5. Collin Morikowa, California, 76-67-71—214
T5. Blaine Hale, Oklahoma, 70-71-73—214
T7. Matthew Walker, Iowa, 73-71-71—215
T7. Nahum Mendoza III, SDSU, 72-71-72—215
T7. Ian Holt, Kent State, 72-73-70—215
T7. Blake Abercrombie, SDSU, 71-70-74—215

T11. JUSTIN DOEDEN, MINNESOTA, 76-70-70—216
T27. RILEY JOHNSON, MINNESOTA, 73-73-74—220
T37. JOSE MENDEZ, MINNESOTA, 72-75-76—223
T41. THOMAS LONGBELLA, MINNESOTA, 74-77-74—225
T44. MASON FIDDLE, MINNESOTA, 71-74-81—226 (playing as individual)
T49. CHARLIE DUENSING, MINNESOTA, 78-76-73—227
T56. WILLIAM LEAF, MINNESOTA, 75-71-83—229
T56. AUSTIN KOTTKE, ST. JOHN’S, 75-68-86—229
T56. RYAN GALLAGHER, ST. JOHN’S, 76-74-79—229
T63. ALEX ULOTH, MINNESOTA, 78-74-79—231
T63. RUNAR ARNORSSON, MINNESOTA, 74-77-80—231
T69. PETER JONES, MINNESOTA, 77-77-79—233
T69. MATT RACHEY, MINNESOTA, 81-75-77—233 (playing as individual)
T69. MACK FARLEY, ST. JOHN’S, 81-75-77—233
72. SAM OLSON, ST. JOHN’S, 77-77-80—234
73. GRADY MEYER, MINNESOTA, 78-81-77—236
77. WES DICKHAUS, ST. JOHN’S, 84-85-78—247
78. CAMPBELL FISHER, MINNESOTA, 87-90-94—271 (playing as individual)


For complete tournament results go to: www.golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=11235