No. 3 Men’s Golf Heads to Oregon

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            After opening the season with tournament wins at the Gopher and Fighting Illini Invitational, the third-ranked Baylor men's golf team will see its stiffest test of the year in the Nike Collegiate Invitational that begins Sunday at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore.
            In a field comparable to what the Bears would see at the NCAA Championship, the 15-team tournament includes five top-10 teams and four others ranked in the top 25 in the latest GCAA Coaches' Poll.
            Joining Baylor are No. 4 Wake Forest, No. 7 Duke, No. 9 Oklahoma, 10^th-ranked Texas, No. 15 Clemson, No. 19 USC, 20^th-ranked Georgia and No. 21 Stanford, along with Florida, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Vanderbilt and the host Oregon team.
            "Minnesota was a good field, really solid, Olympia Fields was a great field. This is even maybe a little bit better," Baylor coach Mike McGraw said. "You've got some of the best teams in the country, which is what you want. You want a schedule where if you play poorly, you're not going to finish very high. And if you play really well, you've beaten some of the best teams in the country. That's kind of the way we've created this schedule."
            McGraw said Pumpkin Ridge is "an amazing golf course . . . where Tiger (Woods) won his last U.S. Amateur. So, there's some history there, but it's also a great field, a lot of really good teams."
            Senior Cooper Dossey, who won medalist honors at last week's tournament at Olympia Fields, said this will be "one of the strongest tournaments" Baylor plays in all year.
            "A bunch of guys have played the Walker Cup and a bunch of guys have played well in the U.S. Amateur," Dossey said. "So, it's a treat for us to go up there and compete with those teams, but I do think we're one of the best ones there. I don't think we're going to go there just to go, I think we're going to go up there to win. I don't think we're going to go up there scared."
            Dossey leads the team with a 69.50-stroke average through the first two tournaments and heads a lineup that includes fellow senior Colin Kober, juniors Travis McInroe and Mark Reppe and freshman Johnny Keefer.
            In the season-opening Gopher Invitational in Minnesota, Keefer made a big splash in his debut, finishing third at 3-under 210. Baylor beat Texas A&M by two strokes to win the team tournament title.
            "He's brought a pretty good energy to the team," McGraw said of Keefer, who is second on the team with a 71.33-stroke average. "He's got a smile that's ear-to-ear, and he just seems to get along with everybody. But, he's also a very good player. He drives the ball beautifully, he's a really good putter. He's off to a good start, playing well."
            Shooting bookend rounds of 2-under-par 68, Dossey won medalist honors at last week's Fighting Illini Invitational by one shot at 4-under 206. Baylor had a 54-hole total of 6-over 846 and tied for first in the 15-team tournament for McGraw's 14^th tournament title in six years.
            "It's really hard to win in that type of field. It's hard enough to win a college golf tournament, period. But, to play against that competition and win is great," McGraw said of Dossey. "Cooper is healthy, which is wonderful, and playing great golf. He's been playing really well for about four months now. . . . It's great to see him back and see the pep in his step a little bit. He's ready for a great senior year.
            The first of three rounds starts at 10 a.m. Sunday, with live scoring available at www.golfstat.com.
            "Just winning two really good events, especially the one at Olympia Fields, feels really good to start off that strong," Kober said. "It was definitely something we stressed, we wanted to start out as quickly as we could. It's exciting, because the five guys just gelled together. (We wanted to) win a couple events to start, and that's what we went out there and did."

WACO, Texas – Baylor men's golf puts its undefeated record on the line at the Nike Collegiate Invitational, which runs Sunday through Tuesday in North Plains, Ore. The 54-hole tournament will be contested on the par-71, 6,997-yard Witch Hollow course at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.

Baylor is ranked No. 3 nationally in the latest Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll after winning its first two tournaments this season. The Bears started the year with a two-stroke victory at the Gopher Invitational, then followed by splitting the team title with Georgia Tech at the Fighting Illini Invitational.

The third-ranked Bears are part of a 15-team field which features nine top-25 ranked programs. BU will compete against No. 4 Wake Forest, No. 7 Duke, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 10 Texas, No. 15 Clemson, No. 19 USC, No. 20 Georgia, No. 21 Stanford, Florida, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Oregon, TCU and Vanderbilt.

Baylor's lineup for the Nike Collegiate is led by a pair of seniors in Cooper Dossey and Colin Kober. Freshman Johnny Keefer is in the No. 3 spot, followed by redshirt junior Travis McInroe and junior Mark Reppe. All five players are making their third lineup appearances in as many tournaments this season.

Dossey is coming off winning the individual title at the Fighting Illini Invitational, claiming his third medalist honor during a four-year Baylor career. He opened the season with a fifth-place finish at the Gopher Invitational. Dossey enters this week with a 71.79 career stroke average across 100 rounds, which trails only Jimmy Walker's 71.55 average on Baylor's all-time list.

Kober ranks 11^th on Baylor's career stroke average list with a 72.94 mark across 63 rounds, while McInroe and Reppe are just outside the top-25 at 74.19 and 74.28, respectively.

Dossey leads the team with a 69.50 season stroke average, followed by Keefer at 71.33, Kober at 71.83, McInroe at 72.67 and Reppe at 73.33. Those five players have combined to play 13 of 30 rounds at par or better, with Dossey leading the team at five of six rounds at par or better.

Teams will play one round each day, with tee times starting at 10 a.m. CT on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Live scoring for the Nike Collegiate Invitational is available at www.golfstat.com. Follow @BaylorMGolf on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for updates throughout the season.

No. 3 Men’s Golf Heads to Oregon

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Players Mentioned

Cooper Dossey

Johnny Keefer

Colin Kober

Travis McInroe

Mark Reppe

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