Mix of Experience and Youth Beneficial for Huskers

By Keith Mann
The Nebraska men’s golf team wrapped up a fall campaign earlier this week that showed the potential Coach Bill Spangler believes his team possesses. However, it was also a fall slate filled with growing pains for a team that is striving to continue to improve its standing in the competitive Big 12 Conference.

Heading into last week’s Squire Creek Invitational in Louisiana, Nebraska was coming off two of its strongest performances of the fall. The Huskers finished fifth at the Jim Colbert Intercollegiate in Manhattan, Kan., in late September, followed by a seventh-place showing at the 49er Collegiate Classic in early October, where NU posted its best team score of the fall, completing three rounds with an 874 team total.

Spangler’s 2003-04 team features a blend of experience and youth. The Huskers’ top five includes a pair of seniors in their fifth year in the Nebraska program.

J.J. Sullivan has been Nebraska’s No. 1 golfer throughout the majority of the fall. The Omaha Gross product has been the Huskers’ most consistent player, finishing the fall with a stroke average of 74.4, and 10 of his first 13 rounds of the fall between 71 and 76.

Chris Hartwig has played the best golf of his Nebraska career this fall. The Norris High School graduate had six sub-75 rounds in the fall and is poised for a strong finish to his career.

While Spangler will look to Sullivan and Hartwig for veteran leadership next spring, he is excited about the remainder of his lineup, which features a sophomore, a redshirt freshman and a true freshman.

Sophomore Judd Cornell had an excellent freshman campaign with Nebraska and has been NU’s No. 2 golfer throughout most of the fall season. He registered a 75.5 stroke average through 13 rounds.

Brady Schnell, Cornell’s high school teammate at Omaha’s Millard West High School, had an outstanding start to his collegiate career this fall, showing why he was one of the top recruits in the state in recent years. Schnell led Nebraska with a 73.8 stroke average through five fall tournaments, including five rounds of 72 or lower. Schnell posted top-20 finishes in each of his first three college tournaments, including a ninth-place showing in Nebraska’s Fairway Club Invitational in his college debut.

Redshirt freshman Drew Reynolds, the grandson of former Husker football All-American Bobby Reynolds, showed flashes of excellence in the fall. Reynolds, a redshirt freshman, has the ability to go very low according to Spangler and posted a pair of 70s in the fall, and finished 12th at the Fairway Club Invitational.

The Huskers will get their spring season underway in mid-February at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate in Hattiesburg, Miss. Nebraska will play five other invitationals in the spring season before gearing up for the Big 12 Championships at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan., during the final week of April.a