By Andrew Santangelo, Athletic Communications
The Great American Conference released their annual preseason coaches’ poll this afternoon. The Northwestern Oklahoma State men’s golf team looks to improve on a last place finish in 2018.
The Rangers will enter the season ranked 10th in the conference in the 2019 Great American Conference Preseason Coaches Poll, receiving just 11 total votes.
Defending GAC Champions Arkansas Tech, received nine first place votes and 81 overall votes, while Southern Arkansas received one.
Northwestern capped off a promising 2018-19 campaign with a disappointing 10th place finish at the 2018 GAC Championships with a three-day total of 944 (317-318-309). Northwestern finished 30 strokes behind the nearest team.
However, despite the rough end to the season, the Ranger golf team showed some potential that head coach Tim Lauderdale will look to use to turn around the program.
“We are really excited about the talent we have in our returners this year and recruited hard to bring in a group of guys who are hungry to play at the NCAA D2 level,” Lauderdale said. “We are looking to improve and expect to finish better than we did last year. The GAC is full of extremely tough competitors with several going on to represent the Central Region at the regional and national tournaments. We know what we are up against and look forward to battling it out this year.”
The new-look Ranger squad will hit the links for the first time on Sept. 8-10 in the GAC Preview at Lake Hefner Golf Course in Oklahoma City.
The 2019-20 Rangers figure to be composed of multiple new faces as coach Lauderdale added five new players to the program, joining five from last year’s team to complete this year’s roster.
The 10-man roster will give coach Lauderdale multiple options when selecting his five-man traveling team for tournaments.
The new-look Ranger squad will hit the links for the first time on Sept. 8-10 in the GAC Preview at Lake Hefner Golf Course in Oklahoma City.
Northwestern will then host the 2019 Ranger Invite at Meadowlake Golf Course in Enid, Okla. on Sept. 15-17, before rounding out the fall with tournaments in Wichita Falls, Texas on Oct. 13-15 and Arkadelphia, Ark. Oct. 20-22.