Golfers have Georgia on minds

March 1, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown State men’s golf team will open play today when they travel to Augusta, Ga., to compete in the Forest Hills Collegiate Tournament, hosted by two-time Division I national champion Georgia Regents University.

It’s the earliest ever start to a spring season for the Penguins.

“This is a one-day, 36-hole tournament that we will be using as a spring tuneup. We’ve never gotten our season started this early before so it’s something really new for us,” said YSU head coach Tony Joy. “We’ve been practicing indoors at the WATTS indoor training facility and that’s been very helpful. The facility has afforded us valuable practice time, which will allow us to be competitive in the late winter months.”

Formerly known as Augusta State University, GRU won the 2010 and 2011 Division I national championship.

Its seven-team invitational is open to a select group of schools.

“Tournaments like this always help when you are recruiting so just to be extended an invitation is very special. The better the schedule, the more it helps as you prepare for the Horizon League tournament in late-April,” added Joy, who begins his 30th season at the helm.

YSU was a very competitive 36-22 during the fall portion of its schedule and if the Penguins are to build off that finish, senior leadership must play a big part while a group of young players will be counted upon as well.

Boardman’s Mark Olbrych and Trevor Jones of Poland are the seniors with junior Bryan Yeo of Keystone High School set to comprise Joy’s upperclass roster.

Olbrych was YSU’s lone Horizon League selection last spring but struggled in the fall as his average was 78.18.

“Mark had a challenging fall but I expect him to pick up his game this spring. All indications after early spring practice is that he is back on track,” Joy said.

Jones played well in the fall, averaging 76.17 while helping YSU to a second-place finish at the Colgate Invitational.

He finished eighth overall (Yeo was seventh) while holding the lead after the first two-rounds of the 54-hole tourney.

Yeo has been one of the steadiest Penguins over the past two seasons, averaging 74 last year and 73.93 this fall.

In addition to his seventh-place finish at the Colgate Invitational, his 18th-place finish helped YSU to sixth-place at the University of Cincinnati’s 16-team Bearcat Invitational.

A core of sophomores, including Brandon Pluchinsky of South Range High School, Bill Gaffney of Buffalo and Dennis Holub of Twinsburg could decide how well the Penguins fare this spring and at the league tournament.

In the fall, Holub shot a course-record 64 and finished third overall at the Bowling Green State John Piper Intercollegiate; Pluchinsky’s 67 was good enough for a ninth-place finish at the Cleveland State Invitational while Gaffney shot a team-best 67 at the Bearcat Invitational.

All invitationals were 54-hole events.

Pluchinsky’s 73.09 average was tops while Gaffney (73.79) and Holub (74.57) combined to post three of the top four averages this fall.

Pluchinsky will try to duplicate the success he enjoyed at last year’s Horizon League Tournament where as a freshman he shot a team-best 66 at Mission Inn Golf Course, outside Orlando, Fla.

“We played the league tournament at Mission Inn the past three years and no golfer was able to break 70. For Brandon to shoot 66 as a freshman shows you the focus he has for the game and his uncanny ability to perform on the Horizon League’s biggest stage,” Joy said.

Rounding out the team is Thomas Lydic, a freshman from Champion High School who shot a 69 at the Cleveland State Invitational and averaged 77.75 in the fall.

“A red-shirt freshman, Thomas has plenty of ability and I look for him to sneak into the line-up this spring. I also expect him to be one of our main players over the next three seasons,” Joy said.

Red-shirting this spring will be Steven Sveda, a sophomore form Dayton and Justin Hallapy, a freshman from Hubbard.

YSU’s next match is March 14 when they travel to Southern Utah to take on SU, South Dakota State and Oral Roberts University in a one-day event.

That will be the prelude to the 54-hole Jackrabbit Invitational, which will be hosted by South Dakota State and held March 17-18 in Primm, Calif.