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2020-21 NEBRASKA MEN'S GOLF
HUSKERS GROW DESPITE SHORT SEASON IN 2020
Tanner Owen produced a team-best 75.46 stroke average in 2019-20. Owen’s third-place finish at the Prairie Club Invitational was Nebraska’s top performance of the season. Despite an abrupt end to the 2020 spring season brought on by the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus, the Nebraska men’s golf team took another step in its growth phase under second-year Coach Mark Hankins in 2019-20. Nebraska’s success on the course included a fourth-place team finish for the second straight season at the Big Ten Match Play Championship, despite a nearly complete turnover in the lineup from 2019 to 2020. Senior Tanner Owen led Nebraska again individually with a 75.46 stroke average while competing in all 15 rounds for the Huskers. He also produced NU’s top individual finish with a third-place showing at the Prairie Club Invitational in Valentine, Neb. (Sept. 29-30). While Owen continued to lead the Big Red at the top of the lineup, Nebraska’s No. 2 through No. 5 golfers throughout most of the season were first-year Huskers. A trio of junior college All-Americans - Branden Meyer, Tom Westenberger and Mark Foelbaek all made significant impacts. Meyer produced Nebraska’s No. 2 stroke average (75.53) while joining Owen as the only Huskers to compete in all 15 rounds on the season. Westenberger added NU’s No. 3 stroke average (76.42) while competing in 12 rounds. Another newcomer, transfer Caleb Badura, also competed in 12 rounds for the Big Red and produced a 76.67 stroke average. Badura also made Husker history by going a perfect 4-0 at the 2020 Big Ten Match Play Championship.
FALL SEASON
The Huskers opened the 2019-20 season with a 10th-place finish at the Duke/Rod
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Myers Invitational in Durham, N.C. (Sept. 14-15). It marked a three-spot improvement over Nebraska’s finish at the event in Hankins’ inaugural season as the Huskers’ head coach in 2018-19. As a team, Nebraska shot an 896 (+32), which was an 18-stroke improvement over the previous season. Owen led the Huskers individually with his tie for 34th at 222 (+6). The Huskers returned to Nebraska to host the Prairie Club Invitational and tied for fifth behind Owen’s third-place individual effort. The senior fired a 217 (-2), including a final-round 70 (-3) in Valentine. Meyer added a tie for 11th (224, +5) as Nebraska’s No. 2 finisher for the second straight event to open the season. Nebraska made it three straight top-10 team finishes by taking 10th at the Maridoe Invitational in Carrollton, Texas (Oct. 6-8). Owen led the Big Red with a tie for 12th (225, +9), while Westenberger tied for 14th (226, +10). The Huskers returned to Texas two weeks later to close the fall season at the Royal Oaks Invitational (Oct. 21-22). Meyer and freshman Will Marshall led Nebraska with three-round totals of 225 (+12), while Westenberger added a 226 to finish 59th. Owen closed the fall with a team-best 74.50 stroke average, while Meyer ranked second among the Huskers with his 75.58 average over the same 12 rounds.
SPRING SEASON
Nebraska began its spring season at the 2020 Big Ten Match Play Championship, Feb. 7-8, at Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Fla. Nebraska opened the tournament by winning the tiebreaker in a 3-3 match against No. 4 seed
Ohio State. Later the same day, the Huskers improved to 2-0 with an impressive 3.5-2.5 victory over Michigan State. The Huskers secured a fourth-place team finish despite suffering a 4-2 setback to Northwestern and a 3.5-2.5 loss to Maryland on the tournament’s final day. Badura provided the biggest individual highlights for the Huskers in Florida by becoming the first Nebraska golfer to go 4-0 at the Big Ten Match Play. Meyer added an impressive 3-1 match play performance for the Big Red. Badura built momentum for the spring by leading the Huskers a month later at the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate in Arizona (March 7-8). The Aurora, Neb., native tied for 21st with a 223 (+7) on the Outlaw Course at Desert Mountain, while Meyer added a tie for 32nd (226) to help Nebraska to a ninth-place team finish. The Huskers were scheduled to play at The Aggie Invitational (April 4-5), the Git-R-Done Husker Invitational (April 11-12) and the Hawkeye Invitational (April 18-19) prior to competing at the Big Ten Championships (May 1-3), but the COVID-19 pandemic ended college sports seasons around the nation in mid-March. Owen capped his 2020 season by earning his bachelor’s degree from Nebraska, while being named a Golf Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American, a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and Academic All-Big Ten. Owen was also Nebraska’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner for men’s golf. Meyer joined Owen as a GCAA Scholar All-American, while Daniel Pearson and Patrick Clare added Academic AllBig Ten honors of their own.
