The Lords golf team is starting strong and eyeing a top spot on the podium at this spring’s North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) tournament. Last year, Wittenberg University (Springfield, Ohio) took the tournament title — Kenyon finished third out of nine teams. This year, the Lords hope to give the Tigers a real run for their money.

The collegiate golf season has two halves: The fall season gives teams the opportunity to gauge the competition, and, in the spring, the competition gets fierce in preparation for the conference tournament. Thus far, the Lords have had solid showings at the Transylvania University (Lexington, Ky.) Fall Invitational, where Kenyon finished seventh out of 16 teams, and at Allegheny College’s Guy Kuhn Memorial Invitational this past weekend in Meadville, Pa., where the team finished fourth out of 18 teams.

Chase Frederick ’20 said the team is trying to make the most of each individual tournament to “improve our ranking and really just beating the teams we should be beating.”

These are lofty goals for the team, but Kenyon golf received a vote this season in the Golf Coaches Assoctiation of America (GCAA) national rankings and wrapped up last season third in the conference and fifth in the NCAA Great Lakes Region. Putting these goals into concrete terms means preparing to beat Wittenberg and make it to nationals in the spring.

Frederick believes the team may soon be ready to make the leap from good to great. “We are still trying to get into the swing of things,” he said. “No pun intended.”