INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The McKendree University men's golf team begins postseason play here this weekend as the Bearcats open up play in the 2022 Great Lakes Valley Conference Men's Golf Championships beginning on Friday, April 15 at the Broadmoor Country Club.
McKendree and the 12 other men's golf teams in the league will play a two-day, 54-hole stroke play – 36 holes on Friday and 18 holes on Saturday – to determine both the GLVC's individual medalist, as well as, the four teams that will advance to Sunday's match/medal round. The four advancing teams will play the semifinals of match/medal play on Sunday morning with the two winning teams playing in the finals of match/medal play on Sunday afternoon. The winner of match/medal play will earn the GLVC title and the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championships.
The Bearcats enter the GLVC Tournament having recorded its best regular season in the program's NCAA Division II history. During the regular season, the Bearcats participated in 10 events and won five of those 10 events, including capping the spring season with the tournament title at the 10-team Dan Salisbury Memorial Collegiate hosted by the University of Illinois-Springfield on April 4-5. In addition to that team title, the Bearcats captured tournament titles in three successive events in the fall (Midwest Regional, McKendree Bearcat Dual Gender and Kentucky Wesleyan Fall Classic) and also won the Warrior Invitational in Stallion Mountain Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nev., to open the spring season.
Along with winning five tournament titles, the Bearcats had two different golfers win a total of five medalist honors on the season as freshman
Fabian Wennerlof (Onsala, Sweden/Katrinelundgymnasiet) won three individual titles and junior
Phasin Vichitcharoenpaisarn (Bangkok, Thailand/The American School of Bangkok) took home two individual titles.
Wennerlof won medalist honors at the McKendree Bearcat Dual Gender, the Kentucky Wesleyan College Fall Invitational and the Dan Salisbury Memorial Collegiate, while Vichitcharoenpaisarn took medalist honors the Lewis Flyer Intercollegiate and the Midwest Regional events during the fall season.
At last season's GLVC Championships, which were held at Fox Run Golf Club in Eureka, Mo., the Bearcats just missed finishing in the Top 4 to advance to the match/medal play round as they shot a 917 for 54 holes to finish in fifth place overall. Missouri S&T earned the No. 4 spot in the match/medal play round as they shot a 895 for 54 holes. Maryville repeated as the 2021 GLVC Champion after a 3.5-1.5 victory over Indianapolis in the final round of the match/medal play format.
Since competing in the GLVC Championship for men's golf beginning in 2014, the Bearcats best finish came in 2014 when they qualified for match/medal play portion of the tournament and lost in the semifinals to UMSL to record a third place overall finish. In addition to the third place finish in 2014 and the fifth place last year, the Bearcats also finished fifth in the event in 2015.
Indianapolis has won a league-best 16 GLVC men's golf championships, while former league members Bellarmine and Northern Kentucky, along with Lewis have each won six titles, while UMSL and Maryville has won twice. Southern Indiana, along with former members Wisconsin-Parkside and Ashland have each won one title apiece.
The top-five finishers at the GLVC Men's Championships are named All-GLVC, while the remaining golf awards, including All-Conference positions Nos. 6-10, as well as, GLVC Player, Freshman and Coach of the Year, are named by a vote of the coaches at the conclusion of the spring season.
