Season Preview: Men's Golf looks to post fourth consecutive winning season in 2017-18
By Caleb Scott
ADA — The Ohio Northern men's golf team will look to post its fourth consecutive winning season in 2017-18 under the guidance of fifth-year head coach Chad Bucci.
The Polar Bears posted a 49-33-1 record during the 2016-17 campaign and finished fourth at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships.
Bucci welcomes back nine letterwinners to the team in 2017-18.
"It's going to be tough filling what was the heart and soul of this team for four years," said head coach Chad Bucci. "Blaine [Ricketts] and Tyler [Anderson] were part of many school records and were a big part of our success."
Senior and 3-time letterwinner Zach Goodchild (Pickerington/North) returns after posting a solid junior campaign.
Goodchild earned GCAA PING All-Great Lakes Region honors as a junior and led the Polar Bears in scoring last season, averaging 74.4 strokes per round for 18 rounds.
Senior and 2-time letterwinner Riku Watanabe (Centerville) also makes his return in 2017-18 and will look to provide experience and depth for Northern.
Northern welcomes four juniors in 2017-18, led by 2-time letterwinner Nick Anderson (Mason).
Anderson ranked fourth on the team after averaging 78.6 strokes per round through 16 rounds.
Also returning for ONU are 2-time letterwinners and juniors, David Gorman (Powell/Worthington Kilbourne), Tanner Rader (Rushsylvania/Ben Logan), and Joshua Turich (Centerville).
Sophomores Ryan Tatman (West Chester/Lakota East) Brant Morton (Findlay/Van Buren) return in 2017-18 after lettering in their first season for Northern.
The duo will look to add depth to the squad.
"Zach is the ideal ONU student-athlete which I hope both programs can benefit from," said Bucci. "He is a great leader and just an all around good person. He works hard and will be important to our team this season. I think the rest of our seasoned guys will step up this year and fill in some of those gaps that we have from last years team."
Four newcomers join the Polar Bears in 2017-18 as freshmen Jared Foster (Cincinnati/Princeton), Shane Meek (Port Clinton), Joe Slusher (Covington), and Ethan Smith (Chillicothe/Southeastern) look to be contributors for Northern.
"This years incoming class has some promise," said Bucci. "They are a good group of guys and will hopefully be a part of helping us continue to be succesful."
Northern opens its fall schedule at the Bluffton Fall Invitational on Sept. 1-2, before competing at the Ohio Dominican Fall Invitational on Sept. 5.
After traveling to Wauseon to compete in the Spiess Invitational on Sept. 12, Northern will compete at the 2-day OAC Fall Invitational on Sept. 17-18.
Northern will wrap the fall portion of the schedule as it competes in the Defiance Fall Invitational on Sept. 24 and the Defiance Yellow Jacket Invitational on Oct. 19-20.