Scarlet Course Holds Robert Kepler Intercollegiate April 9-10 – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
April 7, 2016
RELATED INFO
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The 45th running of the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate takes place this weekend at the OSU Golf Club. Mother Nature has forced a shortened competition schedule for the 2011 edition with only 36 holes scheduled over two days (April 9-10).
TOURNAMENT TIDBITS
Name: Robert Kepler Intercollegiate
Live Scoring: Golfstat (live scoring has been cancelled for Round One)
Course: OSU Golf Club-Scarlet Course (Columbus, Ohio)
Yardage: 7,455 yards — Par 71
Format: Play 5, count 4
Schedule of Play (36 holes):
First Round (Saturday, April 9) | 1 p.m. ET shotgun start
Final Round (Sunday, April 10) | 10:30 a.m. ET shotgun start
Field (16 teams):
*Top-50 Golfstat rankings listed
Bowling Green
Dayton
Eastern Michigan
No. 46 Kent State
Liberty
Maryland
Michigan
No. 49 Michigan State
Northwestern
Ohio State
No. 29 Penn State
Southern Illinois
No. 37 UAB
No. 31 UNLV
West Virginia
Wright State
BUCKEYE LINEUP
1 — Clark Engle — Jr. (73.33 avg; 21 rounds)
2 — Tee-k Kelly — Sr. (73.79 avg; 24 rounds)
3 — Will Grimmer — Fr. (73.71 avg; 21 rounds)
4 — Caleb Ramirez — Fr. (76.55 avg; 9 rounds)
5 — Max Rosenthal — r-Jr. (first event)
Ind. — Sean Busch — Sr. (76.73 avg; 15 rounds)
Ind. — Addison Coll — Jr. (76.67 avg; 9 rounds)
Ind. — Grant Weaver — r-Sr. (77.07 avg; 15 rounds)
Ind. — Josh Wick — r-So. (76.07 avg; 15 rounds)
WEATHER FORECAST
Strong winds, near-freezing temperatures and possible morning snow flurries await on Saturday; causing the day’s competition to be cut from an originally-scheduled 36 holes down to just 18. Sunday’s final round is likely to have more favorable conditions with highs in the mid-50s and little chance of precipitation.
KEPLER HISTORY
Ohio State has hosted the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate every year but two since the 1969 season. The tournament is named for the late Robert Kepler, who served as Ohio State’s golf coach from 1938 until 1965. Under Kepler, Ohio State built a golfing tradition which was enhanced by an NCAA team championship in 1945 and four NCAA individual championships.
Since its inception, the Kepler has been won by only a dozen schools — Colorado, Eastern Michigan, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Illinois, Kent State, Louisville, Miami (Ohio), Northwestern, Ohio State, UNLV and Xavier. The Buckeyes have hoisted the tournament champion trophy 23 times in the 44-year history of The Kepler Intercollegiate, including six-consecutive victories from 1974-79 and nine-consecutive from 1981-1989. In-state rival Kent State ranks second with five team victories while fellow Big Ten schools, Indiana and Northwestern, are tied for third-place with four team crowns each. Ohio State has also taken individual medalist honors 21 times, with Frederik Hammer being the most recent in 2014.
LINEUP PILLARS
Tee-k Kelly has manned a slot in the Buckeye lineup for every tournament during the 2015-16 campaign, logging 24 rounds thus far. The senior from Illinois has contributed 19.5 scores to the team tally and has registered 10 rounds at or below par, including four rounds dipping down into the 60s. Clark Engle and Will Grimmer have each missed just one event apiece, both donning the Scarlet & Gray for 21 rounds.
TOP-10 TALLIES
One or more Buckeyes have cracked the individual top-10 in seven of eight events, including an individual medalist performance from Tee-k Kelly in the Lone Star Invitational. Kelly, Clark Engle and Will Grimmer have done so multiple times:
Will Grimmer (T-10th) — The Carmel Cup, Sept. 4-6 | (T-8th) — Tiger Invitational, March 6-8
Tee-k Kelly (T-6th) — Inverness Intercollegiate, Sept. 21-22 | (1st) Aggie Invitational, March 21-22
Clark Engle (T-9th) — Windon Memorial, Sept. 27-28 | (T-5th) — Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational, Oct. 4-6 | (9th) — Aggie Invitational, April 2-3
Josh Wick (T-9th) — Windon Memorial, Sept. 27-28
ENGLE BACK INSIDE THE TOP-10 AT THE AGGIE INVITATIONAL
Clark Engle returned to the Buckeye lineup for the Aggie Invitational (Apr. 2-3), reaching familiar ground inside the individual leaderboard top-10. His most recent of nine career top-10 finishes came in the form of a ninth place showing at the 80-player Aggie Invitational.
Ohio State tied No. 49 Kent State for sixth place overall at 20-over (884) and ahead of No. 27 Texas A&M (+24), No. 15 Oklahoma (+32), No. 36 Texas Tech (+48), and most importantly, “That Team Up North” (+23). The Buckeyes have posted their lowest score in the final round for all three Spring tournaments thus far.
Tee-k Kelly CROWNED CHAMPION AT THE LONE STAR INVITATIONAL
Tee-k Kelly outplayed 99 competitors to seize medalist honors at the 2016 Lone Star Invitational (March 21-22). He opened the event dipping four strokes under par in Round One before maintaining his early edge throughout by shooting 1-under the rest of the way (68-72-71; -5). Kelly distanced himself from the field by five strokes overall as runner-up Mario Carmona of Rice University finished even par. In last season’s Lone Star Invitational, he cracked the top-10 in a seventh place showing.
BUCKEYES FINISH WITH A FLURRY AT THE TIGER INVITATIONAL
Ohio State vaulted itself into the upper half of 2016 Tiger Invitational (March 6-8) on the final day by recording the fifth-lowest round total of the entire competition. An even-par 288 trimmed 17 strokes off the previous day’s tally and resulted in a ninth-place showing in the 18-team field.
Will Grimmer posted the best finish of his young career, earning a share of eighth place in the 96-player competition. It marked the second top-10 and third top-15 effort during his freshman campaign. Grimmer dropped in five birdies in round three to close out his week at even par (72-74-70).
Tee-k Kelly was huge in the Buckeyes’ late surge as well, registering a 3-under 69 on Tuesday. He utilized four birdies and an eagle en route to one of just 15 rounds dipping into the 60s.
GRIMMER MAKING IMMEDIATE IMPACT IN COLUMBUS
Freshman Will Grimmer jumped right into the No. 1 slot of Ohio State’s lineup for the first tournament of the season and has competed in 21 of 24 team rounds played. His 73.71 stroke average ranks second on the team and he owns a pair of top-10 individual finishes.
Grimmer was ranked top-20 nationally in Junior Golf and qualified for the 2014 U.S. Open at the ripe age of 17 years old. More recently, Grimmer out-performed nearly 300 competitors to advance to the Round of 32 at the 2015 U.S. Amateur Championship.
RAMIREZ LEADS BUCKEYES IN COLLEGIATE DEBUT
Caleb Ramirez, making his Buckeye debut, carded an even-par 72 in the final round of the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational (Oct. 18-20) to earn a share of 20th place overall in the 75-player field. The Californian freshman returned to the lineup for the Lone Star Invitational and is back again at the Aggie Invitational.
ALL-BIG TEN PERFORMER BACK FOR JUNIOR SEASON
Clark Engle picked up All-Big Ten Second Team accolades a year ago, rising as high as No. 71 in the Golfweek individual national rankings. The Springfield, Ohio native was selected to the PING All-Midwest Region squad as well, determined by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN
First-year head coach Jay Moseley officially took over control of the Buckeye Men’s Golf program on July 9 after lifting Kennesaw State into a top-25 national program. He guided the Owls to five consecutive NCAA postseason appearances, including a pair of trips to the NCAA Championships. Moseley’s first hire at Ohio State was adding former Buckeye student-athlete Brad Smith as his assistant coach. Smith earned All-Big Ten honors while donning the Scarlet & Gray in 2011.
