Article by Johan Englen.

On Tuesday Oct. 3, Drury’s men’s golf team is heading to Lemont Illinois, outside of Chicago, to participate in the Flyer Invitational Golf Tournament. The team will be hosted by Lewis University. They will play at the Cog Hill golf course, which is known as a notoriously difficult course (Tiger Woods has won multiple tournaments here).

Photo via Drury Athletics.

Junior golfer Craig Stefureak explained that there really isn’t one hole that is hard, because the entire course is “very difficult.”

“One bad hole and you could be out,” said Stefureak. “It’s all about maintaining focus and just having fun with it, not putting too much emphasis on it even though it is the most important event we are going to have in the fall.”

The invitational will be the second tournament the men’s golf team has participated in this academic year. In the first tournament of the year, the team placed ninth out of 11 teams in the Arch Cup in Saint Louis.

Stefureak explains the importance of how Flyer Invitational will gear the team up for the rest of their season and even postseason.

“This tournament is going to be big for us because [it] is pretty much going to set up how the rest of our year is going to go for us,” said Stefureak, “And determine our schedule into the spring. It’s early, but a good finish here would set us up for postseason in May. It’s a big tournament and we’re going to see a lot of good teams there that we need wins on.”

Photo via Drury Athletics.

After this tournament, the men’s golf team has three more successive tournaments in a row.

“It’s all about momentum,” said Sefureak. “This will set our morale for the rest of the season,”

Sefureak has a handicap of +5, which is a PGA Tour level handicap. This Tuesday, he will be looking to get his first individual win in a collegiate golf tournament.

“I’ve been knocking on the door for an individual win for my first two years here,” said Sefureak. “I qualified for nationals last year as an individual. I’m feeling about as confident as I can for the next month of tournaments we have. Hopefully I can get a win as an individual, and us together as a team.”

Interested in supporting the men’s golf team? Stefureak and his teammates encourage students to simply ask how the team is doing from time to time. He believes that the team could really benefit with a bit more attention from the students.