By Matthew Soderberg | Contributor
On Sunday, Baylor golf tees off for the first time this year. The Bears travel to the Gopher Invitational for their first tournament of the season.
The Bears made it a point to keep the momentum from the team’s success this past summer.
“I think every single one of us is going to build on our summers we had,” co-captain Colin Kober said. “It’s definitely a big boost in confidence knowing that everyone on the team is playing good.”
Co-captain Cooper Dossey won the Pinehurst North & South Amateur in June. Dossey began the tournament ranked No. 8 and finished the week with his first major amateur victory.
Regarding his success over the summer, Dossey said it was important for his confidence heading into this season.
“I kind of lost confidence in myself,” Dossey said, referring to his surgery last November. “I didn’t have my best season last year, and I tried to play a lot of golf this summer just to kind of help me regain that confidence, and to have that win early on in the summer was really big for me.”
Baylor men’s coach Mike McGraw emphasized carrying that momentum from this summer.
“I don’t think maybe four or five teams in the country had a more impressive-type summer,” McGraw said. “If you can turn that into a good college golf season, we’ve got something.”
Baylor is looking to get off to a better start this year after a slow one last season where they finished 13th out of 14 at the Fighting Illini Invitational. According to Dossey, the Bears are focused on setting the tone for the year right away.
“That’s our main focus right now,” Dossey said. “I think we want to start faster.”
Kober echoed that sentiment.
“I think we want to win a couple times this fall,” Kober said. “That’s a big thing.”
The challenge is upcoming. According to McGraw, the Bears are looking at one of the hardest schedules in the country.
Along with Baylor, Windsong Farm GC will have a second Big 12 school taking on the greens in Oklahoma University, which McGraw praised.
“They’re a very good team — well-coached,” McGraw said. “This tournament is a really solid field. It’s got some great teams.”
Along with Kober and Dossey, Travis McInroe and freshman Johnny Keefer will be competing at the invitational Sunday and Monday at Windsong Farm GC in Independence, Minn.
