“At Wright State, we’re a smaller school. We don’t play these bigger schools. But to see your name up there just shows what we can do,” star sophomore Timmy Hollenbeck said at a watch party in the sleek indoor practice facility at the Nutter Center.
“We can play with these teams and maybe shock the world and beat some of them.”
The Raiders are making their fourth regional trip in the last six years. They tied for ninth with Kentucky at Ohio State’s scarlet course in 2022, beating Northwestern, among others.
They slipped to 12th last year, though they finished ahead of Seton Hall.
There are 81 tourney teams, and the top five from six regional sites advance to the nationals.
“The biggest thing we want to do is go there and really compete — kind of mix it up with those schools who have more resources,” fourth-year coach Conner Lash said.
“Having been in a regional last year — four of our guys were there — I think we got it out of our system of being wide-eyed and worried about, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the best player in college golf on the practice green with me.’ Hopefully, we’ll just go play golf.”
The Raiders have won their last three events, staging a late charge to snag the Horizon League title by 10 strokes.
Hollenbeck and junior Shane Ochs had top-five finishes and were named league co-players of the year.
Lash, who won his third coach of the year award, was hoping to play in the closest regional to avoid burning a day on the road (they are) and was happy to get the same style of grass as their home course at Heatherwoode (that stuff matters to elite players).
The only difference will be a longer layout, going to 7,500 yards from the customary 6,800-7,300.
“It’s going to be a longer course. But a 150-yard shot at Heatherwoode is a 150-yard shot at Atkins Golf Club. That’s the way we have to look at it. We’ve already had a successful year, so there’s no pressure. Let’s just go and have fun,” he said.
The Raiders keep raising their profile as a program. Brian Arlinghaus brought in accomplished players and wasn’t afraid to go overseas for talent, and it paid off with the 2019 league title, ending a 15-year drought.
He left for Xavier and handed it off to Lash, who played for Wright State from 2012-16 and was a two-time captain. He’s led the team to back-to-back HL titles for the first time since 2003-04.
“Being a younger guy, he understands us more. He’s taught us a lot about course management. We’re trying to buy into that. This year, when we didn’t have our best stuff, he stayed positive and kept us in good spirits,” Ochs said.
“He kept saying, ‘We’ve got to keep sticking with it. Tomorrow is a new day.’ It didn’t get better fast. We lost some tournaments we probably should have won. But we played solid as a team, and it was nice to see all the hard work and positivity from him paying off.”
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