Kansas City’s Men’s Golf team brought home an 11th place finish at the GCU Invitational last week in Phoenix.
Last Spring, the Kansas City golf team captured their second straight Summit League championship title, becoming the first team to claim a back-to-back title since Denver in 2022. This year the team is working to come back for a third championship title.
“We hold each other accountable to make sure everyone is doing their part,” says senior athlete Max Cooper. “We are trying to three-peat conference again and that has not been done in UMKC’s history.”
The Roos also played in Austin for NCAA Regionals last May where they finished 11 out of 13 teams. What made this ranking stand out was the team entering the tournament with the lowest seed, yet surpassing expectations and beating out teams like Grand Canyon and San Jose State.
The KC golf team always looks forward to the next tournament. “Each tournament is an opportunity to compete,” says student Assistant Coach Daniel Gutgesell. “To see where the team is at, and see where things need to improve to continue making progress as a team.”
The team is young and it has been a rocky start with four freshmen on the team out of eight players. Notably the team has gained experience coming into the spring season and it has been evident in their scores.
“I would not say that we are pleased with the way we performed [at GCU Invitational], we have a very young team and have struggled to find our footing,” says Head Coach J.W. VanDenBorn
VanDenBorn has coached the Kansas City team for 23 years and led them to 7 conference championship titles since 2011. He recognizes the issues the team faces but expressed that they will not define their season.
“We have experienced this before where we have gotten off to a little bit of a slow start and then we are able to get things in place by the end of the season to have a chance to win conference championships and make the NCAA tournament,” shared VanDenBorn.
The team will travel to Pawley’s Island next to compete in the upcoming AGT Invitational hosted by Golfweek, beginning March 31.
