Season Review: Men's Golf continues to build momentum during 2016-17 campaign

By Caleb Scott

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's golf team continued its winning ways during the 2016-17 campaign as it posted its third consecutive winning season under fourth-year head coach Chad Bucci.

Northern posted a record-setting performance at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships as seniors Tyler Davis (Liberty Center) and Blaine Ricketts (Belle Center/Ben Logan) earned All-Conference honors to lead Ohio Northern to a fourth place finish at the championships.

Ohio Northern's 54-hole score of 903 was one shot better then the school record 904 set in 2008.

Both Davis and Rickets earned All-OAC honors for the second time in their careers.

Rickets garnered OAC Player of the Week during the week of Apr. 25 for his efforts at the Defiance Spring Invitational.

Davis, junior Zach Goodchild (Pickerington/North) and sophomores Nick Anderson (Mason) and Joshua Turich (Centerville) were all named Academic All-OAC during the season.

Goodchild also earned PING All-Great Lakes Region 2016-17 by the National Golf Coaches Association.

The junior led the team this season, averaging 74.4 strokes per round for 18 rounds.

Goodchild became ONU's career leader with the lowest single-season average in school history, passing teammate Davis for first place on the list.

Davis ranked second on the team with 76.1 strokes per round, while Rickets ranked third on the team with 76.6 strokes per round.

The trio of Goodchild, Davis and Rickets currently own three of the top-4 best single-season averages in school history.

Northern opened the fall portion of the 2016-17 campaign finishing sixth of 12 at the Ohio Dominican Invitational, before tying for fourth place at the Spiess Invitational.

After finishing fourth at the OAC Fall Invitational in Tiffin, Northern would finish sixth of 12 at the Defiance Fall Invitational and wrapped up its fall schedule with a 12th place finish at the Tiffin Fall Invitational.

During Spring Break, Northern competed with Thomas More (Ky.) at the Atlantic Ocean Classic in a Ryder Cup-style dual match.

From there Northern would go on to finish in the top-4 of each of the final four tournaments, including a second place finish at the Polar Bear Classic, a second place finish at the OAC Spring Invitational, a championship title at the Defiance Spring Invitational and a fourth place finish at the OAC Championships.

Bucci guided the Polar Bears to a 49-33-1 record during the 2016-17 campaign.