University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Head to Texas
10/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
The Golden Gophers will travel down to Dallas for the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate. The tournament, Oct. 26-27, will tee off at 8:15 a.m. Monday for 36 holes, followed by 18 holes starting at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday.
This is the second consecutive year that the Gophers are playing at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate. Minnesota came in 11th in the event last year.
The travel squad: Justin Doeden, Jon DuToit, Tom Vining, Matt Rachey, and Rúnar Arnorsson will make the trip for the Gophers. Vining and Rachey made the team via a qualifier earlier this week, while Arnorsson was a coaches pick. Doeden and DuToit were exempt from qualifying.
Doeden will be in the No. 1 spot for the Gophers for the third consecutive tournament. He said he takes pride in holding that spot.
"Reaching this No. 1 as a Gopher has kind of been my ultimate dream. Actually reaching this and becoming the face of the Gophers is something that I've worked really hard for," Doeden said. "I don't want to stop here, I want to continue. I've got another year and a half here and I want to continue to play No. 1. That's something that I don't take for granted."
The field: The Gophers will be joined by host Baylor, Auburn, Houston, Iowa, Kennesaw State, Michigan, New Mexico, SMU, Texas, Tulsa, and UT Arlington in the 12 team field.
The course: Royal Oaks Golf Course in Dallas is a 7,068 yard, par 71 course.
Notes: *The last tournament the Gophers played in was a successful one. Four Gophers had their best three round score of the season at the Alister Mackenzie Invitational.
*This is the last tournament of the fall season for the Gophers. Their next competition will be at the Big Ten Match Play in February. Senior Captain Jon DuToit reflected how the team has done this fall and what he expects to see out of this tournament.
"We've been doing well so far. I just hope we can go down, have fun, enjoy the last tournament of the fall, and try to play as well as we can so we can have some good vibes going into the winter," DuToit said. "If not we can definitely pin-point some stuff we have to work on and try to get ready for next spring."
