May 8, 2003
Men's Golf Season Ends At NCAA Regional Tournament
Truman men's golf season came to an end on Wednesday as the team finished up the Central regional tournament with a sixth-place finish with a score of 932. The Bulldogs had been tied for third going into the final day after shooting a 301 on Tuesday, the second-best score of the day. MIAA champion Washburn won the event by 27 strokes, shooting an 884 over the three days.
Jason Bertram led the Bulldogs after shooting three sub-80 rounds of 79, 75 and 74. His three-round score of 228 tied him for 13th overall. Jake Mann tied for 19th overall after shooting 83-73-76=232. He second round score of 73 was a career-best and the third-lowest round of the day.
Lou Dersch tied for 27th after shooting a 236 over the three days. Austin George tied for 31st with a score of 239. Both players had their best rounds on Tuesday with Dersch shooting a 77 and George carding a 76. T.J. Erhart's score was disqualified on the second day and he had scores of 80 and 84 in the other two rounds.
The 2002-03 Bulldog squad was very balanced with the regular five golfers averaging within 2.3 strokes of each other and all five leading the team in at least one competition throughout the year. The team finished sixth in the MIAA standings and was fifth at the conference championship meet. The squad's best performance came at the Central Regional Fall Invitational when it tied for third in the 13-team field.
Dersch, a senior, ended the year with the lowest average of 78.2 strokes, including a 77.6 average during the spring season. He led the team in three tournaments during the spring and had top 10 finishes at the Missouri Western and Missouri Southern Invitationals. The other senior, Erhart, ended his career with an 80.5 average. His top performance of the year came at the Central Regional Fall Invitational when he was 13th overall with a score of 154.
George, a sophomore, averaged 79.0 during the 2002-03 season. He tied for fifth at the regional fall meet and also tied for first on the team at the MIAA championships. Bertram, also a sophomore, averaged 79.3 after leading the team at the NCAA regionals. He had one top-ten performance on the year, finishing ninth at the Pittsburg State Invitational in the fall. Mann, next year's lone senior, averaged 79.4 shots. He led the team at the Southwest Baptist Invitational and Washburn Invitational and tied for eighth at the fall regional meet.
Andy Crossett and Brett Meeske were the only other Bulldogs to compete, each seeing action in one meet in the fall. Crossett averaged 79.0 at the Pittsburg State Invitational and Meeske averaged 86.0 at the Drury Invitational.