The Ferris State men’s golf team has lived up to the pre­sea­son hype

The Bulldog men’s golf team has lived up to the expec­ta­tions this season.

The team, which is cur­rently ranked 17^th in the Golf World/Nike Golf Division II Coaches’ Poll, came into the sea­son with a fair amount of hype.

The Bulldogs have met expec­ta­tions so far this fall sea­son, as they have placed in the top five of every con­test they par­tic­i­pated in this sea­son. The team has also won two tour­na­ments; the Ferris State Matt Pinter Invitational and the Saginaw Valley State Al Watrous Memorial Invitational. Head Coach Mike Mignano is in his third year of lead­ing the team.

“I knew com­ing into this sea­son that this would be one of the best teams in school his­tory,” said Mignano.

One of the keys to this year’s suc­cess has been the expe­ri­ence and depth of the team, which con­sists of four juniors and two seniors.

“We’re a very expe­ri­enced team,” said Mignano, “Everyone has a real sense of matu­rity and it has trans­lated to how we’re play­ing right now.”

Photo By: Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo EditorFace-off: Senior Cody Chupp (#8) puts his best foot for­ward in a face-off against a Wilfred Laurier oppo­nent. The team is going into their third offi­cial game this Friday against Connecticut.

Among the vet­eran lead­ers, senior Eric Lilleboe has had an excel­lent sea­son, post­ing three first place fin­ishes. Lilleboe posted a school record 14-under par in the season-opening tour­na­ment at Saginaw Valley State and has been named the GLIAC Men’s Golf Athlete of the Week four weeks in a row.

“Eric has obvi­ously been play­ing some out­stand­ing golf for us this year,” said Mignano, “His play has really paced our team this year, but our team over­all has picked their game up as well.”

Senior cap­tain Kurt Valley and junior Garrett Simons have also led the team with their strong play, as they each have two top 10 fin­ishes this season.

Although the Bulldogs have been suc­cess­ful dur­ing the fall part of the 2009–2010 sea­son, Mignano said they still need to keep work­ing hard in order to get where they want to be.

“There’s still a lot of golf left in this sea­son and the guys know that,” said Mignano, “They know that they have to keep work­ing as hard as they have been if they want to keep com­pet­ing at a high level.”

Ferris con­cluded the fall por­tion of sea­son at the Wayne State Motor City Invitational in Grosse Ile, Mich. It was the team’s final tour­na­ment until the sea­son resumes in March.