by Colin Alger, Ben Line-Neumann and Jack Simzyk
Some unfortunate news made its way around Bradley social media platforms this Wednesday afternoon that left both the Bradley Braves men’s golf team and their fans disappointed. It was announced that the Bradley Spring Invitational that was scheduled to take place at the Weaver Ridge Golf Club, which is located right by Bradley in Peoria, this weekend has been cancelled. The cancellation of what would have been the Braves golf program’s first home tournament since 2017 was caused due to wet course conditions and the rain forecast, as seen in the graphic below, for the Peoria area over the next few days. As disappointing as the cancellation of the home tournament was, the Braves men’s golf team are keeping their heads up and using their success so far this season as momentum, because they must move forward with their season that still has three more tournaments on the remaining schedule, including the Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
A downpour of rain and wet, muddy field conditions that will be present on the course at Weaver Ridge Golf Club this weekend is what it took to get the Bradley Spring Invitational cancelled. There was a lot of excitement within the Bradley golf program about the home tournament for many reasons. Coach Jeff Roche said “Whenever you’re hosting a home tournament, there’s obviously going to be excitement by getting to play in front of your own fans and also getting to play a course that you know.” Reigning MVC individual champion, Drake Bushong added to that saying “It’s always nice to play at home especially since I’m from around here (Peoria) and family is able to come watch.” Braves fans and family coming out to cheer the team on was just one of the reasons the team was excited, but junior, Charles Jahn, pointed out another reason that the team was hyped up for the home tournament. “We definitely would’ve had home-course advantage and we all know that course like the back of our hand.” Jahn said. However, the team isn’t dwelling on this missed opportunity as they look to keep moving forward with their season. Jahn also said, “It’s too bad that we didn’t get to play (at home) but we got three tournaments coming up that I’m pretty excited for.”
With the “what could have been” home tournament behind them, the Braves must now prepare themselves for the remaining three tournaments of the season and keep building momentum off of what has been a successful season so far. Between the fall and spring seasons combined, the Braves are averaging around a fourth place team finish per meet, as seen in the first graph below. That’s a pretty impressive stat considering that all but one of their tournaments so far have had ten or more teams in the field. Also, as you can see in the second graph below, the players individual average scores have all improved since the start of the spring season, with the exception of Drake Bushong. But don’t be too worried about him, because we know what he can do come the time of the conference championship. Charles Jahn is well aware of the team’s success and low scoring averages so far this season and he is motivated to build on that and keep the momentum going all the way to the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. “My biggest goal is win a tournament individually and another goal would be to have the lowest scoring average in Bradley history. We can do it, but it all depends on how we play these last few tournaments. And of course (another goal is to) make it to NCAA regionals and the NCAA championship as a team.” Jahn said.
The Braves have been having a successful year and while the cancellation of the anticipated home meet is disappointing, the team does not seem to be letting it put a damper on their season. The Braves men’s golf team is more motivated than ever and they hope to make it all the way to the NCAA championship tournament and even make a little school history along the way.