Indian golfers ready for national tourney

McCook Community College golf team wraps up practice rounds today at the Rawls course in Lubbock, Texas in advance of start Tuesday for the National Junior College Championships.

LUBBOCK, Texas –The McCook Community College golf team made its final preparations Monday for the Tuesday start of the four-day National Junior College championships.

After practice rounds Sunday and Monday, the team will attend the championship banquet Monday night where the team will be recognized as the Region IX champions – the first for MCC since 1973.

Also two Indian golfers are in the running for District 1, all-division awards:freshman Cameron Lampe (Windsor, Colo.) and sophomore Brady Rogers (Ord).

Since capturing the Region IX title April 7 by one-stroke over Eastern Wyoming, the team has been playing almost every day.

The Lubbock weather forecast calls for temperatures in the upper 80s to start the tournament and hotter each day and with 97 degrees predicted for Friday – every day with wind.

“We are used to wind,” MCC coach Tyler Loop said.

The championship will be played at the 18-hole Rawls Course – home course for Texas Tech University.

“It’s a link style course with big fairways, big greens and fast greens,” Loop said, “It will be important for us to putt well.”

The coach said while the team goal was to win the Region IX, the approach at the national tournament doesn’t change the focus.

The biggest adjustment for the players will be going from a two-day tournament to a four-day tournament.

“The mental grind when you compete against the best in the nation for four days will be the challenge for us,” Loop said. “We’ll need to stay focused and not lose control of what we are trying to do.”

The team from Indian Hills Community College of Ottumwa, Iowa has been the top rated team all season and is the favorite going into the tournament having played and beaten a lot of Division I schools all year.

Region IX foe Eastern Wyoming is ranked 19th in the nation, (despite losing to MCC in the Region standings) but Loop said the two teams have been so close all year and seem to be so evenly matched talent-wise that he believes both teams are capable of making solid runs.

“Our goal before the season began last fall was to get to nationals and now that we’re here we plan to compete.”