Springfield, Ohio – The Wittenberg University men’s golf team is off and running to start the 2014-15 season. After opening with a stern challenge at the Transylvania Invitational Sept. 6-7, the Tigers will immediately test their stamina by hosting the 36-hole Rosencrans-Maurer Invitational at Springfield Country Club on Monday, Sept. 8.
Wittenberg is joined in the field by North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) rivals Allegheny, Denison, DePauw, Kenyon and Wabash, in addition to Bellarmine, Capital, Mount St. Joseph, Ohio Northern and Spalding. First tee times are scheduled for 9 a.m., and action will continue throughout the day as each team’s golfers play two rounds in one day.
The tournament is the first of three scheduled by Wittenberg Men’s and Women’s Golf Head Coach Jeff Roope at historic Springfield Country Club during the 2014-15 school year. The Tiger women will host the Pat Clouse Invitational Oct. 11-12 at Springfield Country Club, and the men will return to the course again for NCAC Championship Series #2 May 2-3, 2015.
Designed in 1922 by renowned golf course architect Donald Ross, Springfield Country Club plays to a total yardage of 6,684 yards with a par 72. The challenging course has served as host to the 1988 Ohio Amateur, 2006 Senior Amateur, and the 2007 Ohio Amateur, and it was a qualifying site for the 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 U.S. Open.
The Rosencrans-Maurer Invitational is named for two of the finest men's golf coaches in Wittenberg history. Bob Rosencrans and Dave Maurer, also two of the finest football coaches ever to roam the sidelines at Wittenberg, both enjoyed extended runs of success leading the Tigers on the links from the early 1970s through the early 1990s.
Wittenberg is coming off one of the finest seasons in program history in 2013-14. The Tigers placed fifth in the 2014 NCAA Division III Tournament, following a regular season that included seven first-place finishes in 12 tournaments, capped by back-to-back tourney titles to win the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship Series for a fifth consecutive year.
Roope, who broke new ground in May 2014 as the first person to hold NCAC Coach of the Year designations for the men and women concurrently, has eight letterwinners back on the roster in 2014-15, led by senior All-Americans John Chaney (Shaker Heights, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) and Alex Andrews (Kirtland, Ohio/Gilmour Academy), and fellow first-team All-Great Lakes Region honoree Jared Wissinger (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson), also a senior.
Written By: Ryan Maurer