Gorloks Golf 19th in Final Ranking
The Webster University men's golf team closed out the 2019-20 season ranked 19th in the latest edition of the Golfstat.com Division III team rankings for this season that were released this past Thursday by Golfstat.
The No. 19 ranking is the highest ranking in the Golfstat.com rankings in school history for the Gorloks as the previous highest ranking was No. 20 in Golfstat's final rankings of the fall season this past November.
"Finishing the 2019-20 golf season ranked 19th is an amazing accomplishment for us. The dedication among the entire team has been incredible and it's unfortunate that we didn't get to play out the remainder of the schedule because we have been rising in the rankings after each event," Webster head men's golf coach Andrew Belsky said. "When I took over the program 16 years ago we could only dream of cracking the top 50 in the country, let alone be in the top 20. It's a great feeling. That being said we still have work to do and I can't wait to see what the future brings to this team."
In the latest edition of the Golfstat.com Division III rankings, Webster has an adjusted scoring average of 74.41 and an average drop score of 80.78. In addition, the Gorloks posted a 76.64 strength of schedule and are one of 15 teams ranked in the Top 20 that have at least one event win this season as Webster took home the team title at the season opening Culver's Edgewood College Fall Classic as they shot a 13-over 581 for 36 to win the event for the third straight year.
In addition to winning the title at the Culver's Edgewood Fall Classic, Webster also placed second at both the Carthage Tim Kopka Memorial Tournament and the Rhodes Fall Classic in the fall season and placed second in its final tournament of the season at the BSN Sports Dataw Island Invitational. In fact, the Gorloks placed in the Top 5 in six of its seven events this season.
The Gorloks, who are expected to return its entire 2019-20 line-up next year, completed the 2019-20 season with a team scoring average of 298.89, which is nearly one stroke lower than the old single-season record of 299.97 that was set by the 2018-19 team that won its third consecutive St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship and appeared in the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships for the fourth time in the last six years.
In addition to being ranked 19th in the Golfstat.com Division III rankings, the Gorloks are ranked 23rd in the latest Bushnell Golfweek Division III Coaches Poll that was released by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) two weeks ago.
Junior Will Hocker (Grapevine, Texas/University of Oklahoma) recorded Top 10 finishes in six of his seven events on the year, including taking home medalist honors at the Culver's Edgewood College Fall Classic to put him at No. 8 in the nation in Golfstat's Division III player rankings. On the season, Hocker finished with a 71.69 adjusted scoring average and posted a 1,946-12 overall record on the season and recorded a team-best seven rounds of par or better golf, including a school-record low round of 63 (-8) in the second round of the Tim Kopka Memorial Tournament.
The round of 63 was the lowest round shot by a Division III player on the season, while his 8-under par was tied for the lowest round relative to par in Division III as Hocker was tied with Sewanee's Zack Russell, who shot an 8-under 64 in the first round of the SAA Men's Golf Preview.
Along with Hocker, three other Gorloks recorded scoring averages of over 76.35 on the season as senior Zac Ciesla (Lake Charles, La./Alfred M. Barbe) had a scoring average of 75.13 as he had four rounds of par or better and took home one Top 10 finish, which was tied for medalist honors at the Carthage Tim Kopka Memorial Tournament, while senior Cole Pickett (Greenville, Ill./Keiser University) had a scoring average of 76.22 on the year and posted two Top 5 finishes, including winning medalist honors at the Country Club Classic hosted by Millikin University and recorded two rounds of par or better golf and junior Mitchell Vetter (Colleyville, Texas/Grapevine) posted a 76.33 scoring average and had one Top 5 finish, which was a third-place finish at the Culver's Edgewood College Fall Classic.
STORY COURTESY OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
