Sept. 20, 2001
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s golf team opens the fall portion of the 2001-02 season this weekend (September 23-24) when the Irish travel to Muncie, Ind., for the first-ever Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational Tournament. Ball State University has hosted this tournament since 1975, but this will be the first year that it is named in honor of long-time Ball State golf coach and sports information director, Earl Yestingsmeier. The 54-hole tourney is the first for the Irish under new head coach John Jasinski and will be played at the Player’s Club at Woodland Trails in Muncie.
With the events of Sept. 11th causing postponement of the Northern Intercollegiate last weekend in Iowa City, Iowa, the start of the season for Jasinski and his squad was pushed back a week. The former University of Toledo head coach will look for his young team to get off to a strong start in the 19-team tournament that will consist of 36 holes on Saturday and 18 on Sunday.
The Irish will be joined in the tournament by Akron, Ball State, Butler, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Michigan, Iowa, IUPUI, Louisville, Northern Illinois, Ohio University, Western Kentucky, Wright State, Xavier and Youngstown State.
Jasinski’s squad will be fairly inexperienced heading into the season opener. Leading the Irish will be senior Steve Ratay (Arlington Heights, Ill.) who was the team’s top golfer last season. Ratay had a 73.68 average for 28 rounds in 2000-01. For his career he checks in with a 75.09 mark. He finished fifth in the Notre Dame Campus Championship with a 72-hole total of 297.
After Ratay is another senior Chris Whitten (Rockford, Mich.) who has seen limited action in his career. In six rounds he owns a 79.00 average. He was third at the Campus Championship with a 295.
Joining Ratay and Whitten are sophomore Gavin Ferlic (South Bend, Ind.) and freshmen Steve Colnitis (Baldwin, Md.) and K.C. Wiseman (South Bend, Ind.). Ferlic turned in a 76.67 average last season in six rounds of play and finished second at the Campus Championship with a 294. Colnitis, who fired the best round of the campus championship with a third round 68, won the tournament, his first of any type as a member of the Irish golf team. He finished two strokes ahead of Ferlic with a 292 total. Wiseman, also in his first year at Notre Dame, was sixth at the campus championship with a 301 total for the 72-hole tournament.
Following the Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational, the Irish will next be in action on September 28 and 30th at the Michigan Wolverine Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich.