Season Preview: Men’s Golf hoping to carry momentum from 2023 OAC Championships into 2023-24 campaign

By Wes Mayberry

| 2023-24 Men's Golf Schedule | 2023-24 Men's Golf Roster |

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's golf team is carrying strong momentum from the end of last season into the 2023-24 campaign under 11th-year head coach Chad Bucci.

The Polar Bears played the final 54 holes of the 2023 OAC Championships with the second-lowest total in the field to improve from eighth place to fourth in the standings and post their second straight winning season with a 44-40 record.

All five starters from that OAC Championships lineup — juniors Andrew Briars (Maumee/Anthony Wayne) and Adam Trigg-Holdman (Cincinnati/Roger Bacon) and sophomores Anthony Naso (Grosse Ile, Mich.), Bennet Christy (Plymouth, Ind.) and Joey DeSimone (Munroe Falls/Stow-Munroe Falls) — return for 2023-24 after having competed in that event for the first time in their careers.

Naso and Christy each shot 302 to finish tied for 15th in the 45-man field, falling just two shots shy of a top-14, All-OAC position. Briars was tied for 23rd with a 307, DeSimone was 29th with a 312, and Trigg-Holdman tied for 30th with a 313.

Naso and Christy shared the team lead with a season-low round of 70, which is tied for sixth-best all-time at ONU for 18 holes.

Naso finished last season with a team-best 76.6 average over 19 rounds, which is tied for seventh all-time at ONU, and posted three top-10 finishes. Christy ranked third on the team with a season average of 78.0 and led ONU with 20 rounds played in 2022-23.

Briars had a season average of 78.1 over 17 rounds with a low of 74 and had three top-10s in 2022-23. He owns a career-low round of 72 and a career average of 78.7 over 34.5 rounds in two seasons.

DeSimone finished last year with an 80.0 average over 15 rounds and a low of 74.

Trigg-Holdman closed 2022-23 with an average of 79.0 over 18 rounds and a low of 71, which was a career best. He owns a career average of 79.8 over 37 rounds in two seasons at ONU.

Junior David Walsh (Cincinnati/Moeller) and sophomores Austin Hanni-Wells (Findlay/Liberty-Benton), Wyatt Bowen (Columbus/Dublin Scioto), Evan Dennison (Ashland/Mapleton) and Will Copfer (Cincinnati/Moeller) also return after playing in double-digit rounds a season ago. That group posted respective 18-hole averages of 81.1, 81.2, 81.7, 81.8 and 82.0.

Graduate student Austin White (Harrisburg, Pa./Susquehanna Township), fifth-year seniors Sutton Bucci (Lewis Center/Olentangy) and Bradon Wooldridge (Piketon), seniors Jacob Brooks (New Albany) and Garrett McCarthy (Alexandria/Newark Catholic), junior Ethan Ricketts (Belle Center/Ben Logan) and sophomores Jevin Beard (Ostrander/River Valley), Aidan Chandler (Ashland), Dominic Pilla (Highland Heights/St. Ignatius) and Jagan Wilkerson (Brookville) round out the returning letter winners for 2023-24.

The Polar Bears open the fall portion of their 2023-24 schedule at the Olivet (Mich.) Lou Collins Memorial Tournament on Sept. 1-2.