2023 Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff

Photos: Dalhousie Golf Club hosts Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff

Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, was the site of the Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff.

For the first time this year, Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, was among the season-opening venues in college golf. Dalhousie hosted the Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff on Sept. 3-5, testing a 12-team field over its undulating layout.

Dalhousie, a Gary Nicklaus design that opened in 2002, appears among Golfweek’s Best Private Courses in Missouri and the Golfweek’s Best list of residential courses in the U.S. The course has hosted championships at every level, from the Missouri Amateur to the Missouri Valley Conference Championship to Gateway PGA-sanctioned events to the AJGA’s prestigious Rolex Tournament of Champions.

LSU went 20 under for 54 holes to win the Golfweek event, and also claimed the individual medalist in Alex Price, who was 11 under.

“It’s a really good golf course,” LSU head coach Chuck Winstead said of Dalhousie at the end of the weekend. “It’s solid tee to green, good layout, I think it’s a really, really good test.”

Take a look at some scenes from the tournament.

‘It’s such a good test’: Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff puts spotlight on Dalhousie Golf Club

Dalhousie has proven a stout test for a college field and the many other events it has hosted since coming online in 2002.

LSU head coach Chuck Winstead remembers walking Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 2009 while recruiting at the AJGA’s Rolex Tournament of Champions.

“It’s a really good golf course,” said Winstead. “It’s solid tee to green, good layout, I think it’s a really, really good test.”

Winstead brought a team back to Dalhousie this past week for the season-opening Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff. LSU went 20 under for 54 holes, edging Missouri by seven shots. Dalhousie has proven a stout test for a college field and the many other events – from the Missouri Amateur to the AJGA Rolex – it has hosted since coming online in 2002. The layout ranks No. 4 in Missouri on Golfweek’s Best list of top private clubs in Missouri.

Sam Houston State head coach Brandt Kieschnick could picture a postseason event there someday.

“The golf course was a great test and could host an NCAA Regional,” said Kieschnick, whose Bears were sixth at 7 over. “We loved the setup.”

Ball State head coach Mike Fleck arrived at Dalhousie and saw shades of home. The Gary Nicklaus design felt like a combination of Indiana’s Pfau Course and Victoria National, two of Indiana’s most challenging golf courses.

“Dalhousie presented itself as a great venue and challenging setup,” Fleck said. “With tight fairways lined with trouble, it definitely rewarded those that drove the ball in play. The fairways and greens were a bit softer than we anticipated, but you really have to be precise on the big undulating greens.”

Dalhousie is a big layout on undulating, South Missouri terrain. Bentgrass tees and greens and Zoysia fairways offered a new look for Stetson’s men, who are used to Bermudagrass back home in Daytona Beach, Florida.

“It was in incredible condition, everything you could probably say how good it was, it was,” Stetson head coach Danny Forshey said. “For us, coming from Florida, it was different. That was one of the reasons we enjoyed it, I think it’s important for our guys to play different venues.”

After two rounds – a practice round and the first round of competition – Stetson was dialed in. The Hatters’ four counters were under par in Round 2, with John Houchin leading the way at 67. Only LSU fired a better second-round score.

“I knew after the practice round, I was thinking this is different, I wish we had seen this place before,” Forshey said. “As you could kind of tell, after we got through the first round, then after they saw it twice and getting into that second round on Monday, getting to see it for the third time, you could see our guys get a little more comfortable.”

Stetson, a team that traveled to the National Golf Invitational last spring for its first postseason start in program history, ended the second round of the Golfweek Kickoff sandwiched between the two SEC programs in the 12-team field. The Hatters trailed LSU by eight but were five ahead of tournament-host Missouri. They subsequently got an SEC pairing for the final round.

Forshey loved that final-round draw for his players just as much as he loved the test Dalhousie brought. Several of the tee shots took discipline – like the par-4 10^th that features a double fairway – and lengthy par 3s that required commitment to good targets.

“It’s such a good test,” said Forshey, whose Hatters ultimately finished third at 5 under, the only team beside LSU and Missouri to finish under par. “You can shoot 65 or 66 out there but you’re going to have to play some really good golf.”

LSU graduate transfer Alex Price fired a 65 to start the 36-hole day Sept. 4, and Missouri sophomore Alfons Bondesson closed with 65 the next day. Despite those low rounds, the amateur course record of 64 shared by LPGA winner Rose Zhang and Dustin Korte, who played college golf at Austin Peay, still stands.

Price won the individual title with an 11-under total, while Missouri’s Jack Lundin came in second at 10 under.

“It’s what I’m familiar with, and it’s where I learned to play,” Price said in describing Dalhousie after 36 holes. “I’m always going to love that, and on top of it, there’s a lot of fun shots and cool holes.”

It adds up to an unforgettable season opener.

LSU wins season-opening Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff at Dalhousie with top-to-bottom effort

“It was a good step for our team, and everybody played a role. That’s good to see this early in the year.”

In a wave of LSU birdies – 60 of them over three days at Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Missouri – the two Cohen Trolio made first thing Tuesday morning were a couple of the most important.

Facing two holes to close his second round on Tuesday morning in the Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff, Trolio birdied both, “which helps just in general with the whole vibe of the team,” said LSU head coach Chuck Winstead. By the end of the day, the Tigers were carting off a team trophy in their first start of the season.

Nine of 12 teams in the field had to pack it up early on Monday, their first 36-hole day of the fall season, when lightning forced play to be called early in the evening. LSU had an eight-shot lead on Stetson by that point. They slept on it, came back to Dalhousie on Tuesday morning and after a 2-over final-round score, finished at 20 under for the tournament. LSU held off a charge from Missouri to win by seven shots.

“It was a good step for our team,” Winstead said, “and everybody played a role. That’s good to see this early in the year.”

To Winstead’s point, LSU’s low score in the final round came from freshman Jay Mendell. The Tigers’ other new man in the lineup, fifth-year senior Alex Price, won the individual title by a shot. Trolio, of course, bridged the momentum from rounds 2 to 3, logging a top-5 finish individually in the process.

This early in the season, college golf coaches are still in the learning phase. Winstead spent the weekend getting to know the two new men in his lineup a little better. Price arrived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after four standout years at Christopher Newport, which competes in NCAA Div. III. After opening rounds of 65-66, Price closed with a 2-over 74 on Tuesday and won his first Division I start. As Winstead noted, what else needs to be said about that?

“He had a big lead and that’s not always easy to play with and it came down to the last hole, it always does. The thing that was obvious was he birdied 16, he made a really good par on 17 which was one of the harder holes out there today with the hole location and then grinded out a par on 18 but looked the whole time like he never lost his composure,” Winstead said. “That speaks volumes for who I think he is, and we’ll find out more with the rest of the season.”

As for Mendell, Winstead spent most of Monday watching the newcomer from Lafayette, Louisiana, and loved what he saw. Mendell offered a counting LSU score every round, but on Tuesday his 3-under 69 led the team. He tied for 10th individually.

Winstead sees similarities between Mendell and past Tigers who have found success at LSU and beyond.

“He hits the golf ball really well and he’s not afraid to be coached into the correct numbers and the correct lines,” Winstead said, “and that’s not something that I necessarily would have known until we got into a tournament.”

In the Missouri huddle, new head coach Glen Millican is doing quite a bit of learning about his lineup, too. Millican only beat his players to campus by a couple of weeks this fall, having taken the Missouri job after spending the past 22 seasons as the head men’s coach at New Mexico.

Millican’s men made a run at LSU on Tuesday, going 8 under in the final round. That was the best score of the day by 10 shots.

Missouri senior Jack Lundin had a birdie putt on the 18th hole to tie Price for individual honors, but made par there to finish at 10 under, one back. The Tigers also got a top 10 out of sophomore Alfons Bondesson.

“It’s been a little chaotic to start for us as a program with so many changes being made late and so many new things going on for all of us,” Millican said. “Our guys have done an excellent job preparing themselves and it showed by the way they played solid all three rounds.”

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Glen Millican opens the next chapter with Missouri at Dalhousie Golf Club

Millican was named men’s golf coach at Missouri roughly a month before the start of the 2023-24 season.

Glen Millican’s history with the University of New Mexico encompasses his entire adult life. Until he landed in Columbia, Missouri, this fall, he had only ever known golf with the Lobos.

Millican played college golf for New Mexico in the late 1990s and at 23, joined then-head coach J.T. Higgins’ staff as an assistant coach. At 26, he took the head coaching role.

Millican was named head men’s golf coach at Missouri roughly a month before the start of the 2023-24 season, replacing Mark Hankins – who was set to replace longtime head coach Mark Leroux – when Hankins took the head men’s golf job at USC.

It’s hard for Millican to put into words exactly what led him to Missouri.

“I don’t have a specific reason why you would leave somewhere that you’ve been forever,” he said. “I had a great 30 years at New Mexico as a player and coach and it’s my alma mater so that place and that golf program is always going to mean a lot to me.”

Millican only beat his Missouri players to campus this fall by a couple of weeks. The Tigers roster includes four returners and five new players, including freshman Adam Miller, whom Millican and assistant coach Sean Carlon (formerly Millican’s assistant at New Mexico) had recruited at length, as well as Lobo transfer Virgilio Paz.

Mizzu set to host at Dalhousie Golf Club

This weekend, as Millican leads a team that’s not the Lobos into a tournament for the first time in his career, you might say the slate is clean at Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau. Missouri is the host team for the 2023 Golfweek Collegiate Kickoff, a new event on the schedule that replaces the Tigers’ usual start at Turning Stone Tiger Collegiate in Verona, New York.

“We’ll go down to Dalhousie and play some golf and that will show us a lot more than we can find out this week,” Millican said of getting to know his new team, top to bottom. “And then we’ll be off to the races.”

Millican pays a lot of attention to history, and in that respect, there are similarities between New Mexico and Missouri that he can’t ignore. At New Mexico, Millican was very aware of the success of coaching legends that came before him, from Dick McGuire, Duane Knight and John Fields to his predecessor Higgins. At Missouri, he follows men like Richard Poe, Leroux and Hankins.

“Same type of situation where you’re coming in behind guys you have a lot of respect for, guys that have done a really nice job with the program and then had a lot of success, run it the right way, have built it, have made things better in their time here,” Millican said of Missouri.

New Mexico won eight Mountain West Conference titles under Millican and advanced to NCAA Regionals 20 times in his tenure. The Lobos finished in the top 25 at the 2023 NCAA Championship. In fact, Millican left such an impression that after he announced he’d taken the job at Missouri, his alma mater issued a press release simply thanking him. Just like at New Mexico, Millican said his goal at Missouri will be to find ways to make the program better.

“I felt like there’s a ton of opportunity here,” Millican said. “Obviously they’ve already shown that they’ve had really, really good years and had great players, All-Americans, future tour players come through here and we want to continue that and get more of those guys and continue to have great finishes and find ways to keep getting better in a really competitive game.”

As Millican notes, when you haven’t competed on a course before – as will be the case at Dalhousie – sometimes it’s not immediately apparent where the course will show its teeth. Bill Morrow, the General Manager of Golf Operations at Dalhousie, went right to the rough.

“We normally don’t have the rough up,” he said. “The golf course, it’s a world-class golf course. . . . It’s very scenic, tree-lined but great par 3s.”

Dalhousie, a Gary Nicklaus design that opened in 2002, appears among Golfweek’s Best Private Courses in Missouri and the Golfweek’s Best list of residential courses in the U.S. The course has hosted championships at every level, from the Missouri Amateur to the Missouri Valley Conference Championship to Gateway PGA-sanctioned events to the AJGA’s prestigious Rolex Tournament of Champions.

The closing three holes are particularly intriguing for a college event. No. 16 is a challenging, downhill par 4 with a fairway bunker on the left and a well-bunkered green while the uphill 17th is the longest par 4 on the golf course. The 18th hole features a green that stretches 105 yards from front to back.

“It’s a great closing par 5 and it’s just an amazing green complex from front to back,” Morrow said.

Summer rains have left the course in what Morrow calls spectacular shape. A new venue and new event will give Millican a good tell on where his team is to start the season.

“When you go somewhere you’ve never played, it gives you the opportunity to see how well you can really prepare and see how well you can handle things that may have come up that you didn’t expect,” he said. “You don’t really know until you know.”

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