Dayton Flyers

OKATIE, S.C. - Nearly 700 miles away from the cold, gray Midwestern winter, the Dayton Flyers men's golf team begins the spring season on Friday, Feb. 17 and Saturday, Feb. 18 in Okatie, S.C.

Both coach Gip Hoagland and the team are looking forward to the warmer weather - and understand the importance of the event.

“We have been working hard since the end of the fall season and are ready and anxious to compete,” Hoagland said. “We have an experienced lineup and I am confident that they will perform well.”

Last year Dayton won the North Georgia three-team invitational. Matt Buse was tallied a second-place finish with a 78 and Sean Keating fired an 80 help the Flyers to victory.

On Friday, the Flyers face the Marshall Thundering Herd in a dual meet. The following day, Dayton will then face DePaul, Ohio and Marshall in a four-team meet.

The two events will take place at the Chechessee Creek Golf Club. The 18-hole "Chechesee Creek" course at the Chechessee Creek Club facility in Okatie, South Carolina features 6,606 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 70.

The course rating is 71.8 and it has a slope rating of 126. Designed by Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore, ASGCA, the Chechesee Creek golf course opened in 2000.

In the 2011 fall campaign, Dayton had three finishes in the top five. UD placed in second at the UK Bluegrass Invitational and at the UD Fall Invitational.

The Flyers finished the fall with a 292.23 team stroke average in 13 rounds of play.

Michael Oberschmidt led the Flyers during the fall campaign with a 73.2 stroke average. Not far behind were Brenten Blakeman and Sean Keating with a 73.8 stroke average and Matt Buse at 73.9.

This will be the first of six spring events this season for Dayton.