Oct. 2, 2005
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Following strong performances in two of the nation’s three toughest tournaments to open the 2005-06 season, the Notre Dame men’s golf team is 12th in the first complete Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index computer ratings released Sunday. With a 70.64 power rating, the Irish also are the second-highest rated Midwest Region team in the ratings, trailing only 2002 NCAA champion Minnesota. In addition, Notre Dame’s schedule has been ranked as the 22nd-toughest in the nation, thanks in part to competing in the No. 2 and No. 3-rated college events in the land thus far (the Gopher Invitational and Shoal Creek Intercollegiate, respectively).
By comparison, the Irish ended last season ranked 59th in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index after winning their second consecutive BIG EAST Conference title and making a second straight trip to the NCAA Central Regional, coming up two strokes shy of a playoff to advance to the NCAA Championships.
Individually, three Notre Dame golfers are appearing in the top 75 of the first Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index ratings. Junior Cole Isban (South Bend, Ind./Mishawaka Marian) is 31st overall, following his tie for first place at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate with a career-low score of 210 (-6). Senior Mark Baldwin (Laconia, N.H./New Hampton Prep) is the No. 50 player in the land on the strength of top-15 performances at both the Gopher Invitational (tie-10th) and the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate (tie-14th). Senior Scott Gustafson (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) rounds out Notre Dame’s ranked trio at No. 75, bolstered by a tie for sixth place at the season-opening Gopher Invitational.
The Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index is based on a mathematical formula that uses a team or player’s won-lost-tied record against other teams/players when they play on the same course on the same day, and the stroke differential between those teams/players, then links all teams/players to one another based on common opponents. The ratings give an indication of who is playing well to this point in the season.
“This is an exciting development for Notre Dame golf,” second-year Irish head coach Jim Kubinski said. “However, we also have to remember that it’s very early in the season. Still, I believe our best golf is front of us.”
Notre Dame teed off this season with a fifth-place finish in the 12-team Gopher Invitational, shooting an 893 (+29) to finish 10 shots out of the lead, but ahead of such noted teams as Stanford, Georgia Southern, SMU and Indiana. That result was more remarkable considering the Irish put themselves in a bind with an opening-round 309.
One week later, Notre Dame was squarely in contention from the first tee shot to the final putt at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate, winding up only nine shots off the pace to come home sixth in the 15-team tournament with a score of 872 (+8), tying the fifth-lowest 54-hole score in school history. Along the way, the Irish knocked off two teams that are ranked in the current Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA)/Bridgestone Top 25 Poll — No. 3 Florida and No. 17 Alabama (downing the latter squad by 19 strokes) — and nearly picked off 14th-ranked Georgia State as well, finishing two shots behind the Panthers.
In the nine tournaments Notre Dame has participated in since Kubinski took over as Irish head coach in January 2005, Notre Dame has won twice, finished second once and placed among the top five on five occasions. In addition, the Irish have bested seven teams that were ranked in the GCAA/Bridgestone Top 25 at the time of the tournament.
Notre Dame will be back on the course next Sunday-Monday, Oct. 9-10, heading to Durham, N.C., for the Coca-Cola Duke Golf Classic. It also will serve as a homecoming for Kubinski, who was the assistant men’s and women’s golf coach at Duke from 2003-04.
— ND —