Oswego State Lakers golf will host their fall invitational for the 20th consecutive year this weekend at their home course Oswego Country Club.

Head coach Mike Howard took over the golf program 25 years ago and wanted other teams to get the opportunity to play a prestigious private course like Oswego Country Club.

“Oswego Country Club is an outstanding golf course,” Howard said. “We’re going away playing all these nice courses, and I thought Oswego Country Club, if not the same, is better than the courses we were at. So, I wanted to showcase that golf course.”

The inaugural Oswego State Fall Invitational in 1998 started off small with just seven teams competing in a one-day event. For the first time the fall invitational this weekend will be a 36-hole two-day competition.

The Lakers are the two-time defending champions of the Oswego State Invitational, including a tie for first place in last year’s invitational with both their “A” and “B” squads. For the fourth season in a row, the Lakers will represent two teams of five players for their home invitational.

“I think it’s good to get the other guys out,” junior Corey Marshall said. “I think everybody’s pretty confident we can shoot well at the home tournament. It’s great competition for the “A” squad and the “B” squad to go head-to-head.”

The “B” squad for the Lakers won in a 317 to 317 tie-breaker with the “A” squad last year, and the “A” squad won outright two seasons ago with the same total score of 317 (plus 33).

This fall season, the Lakers have finished in second place in three of their events. For the first time this fall, they finished in first place by 13 strokes this week at the Elmira College Invitational.

“I’m glad we got the [win] yesterday. It should help with their confidence,” Howard said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge of going out there and winning on our home course and posting some real solid numbers. We’re not looking just to win, we’re looking to shoot a [solid] number.”

Junior Sean Paul Owen, who is from the Elmira area, shot a one-under par round of 71 strokes at the Elmira Invitational, earning him individual medalist honors to go with the team’s first-place finish.

“I feel pretty confident in my game right now. I’ve been playing pretty well,” Owen said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to take home the team trophy.” The Lakers have won their home invitational nine times, including three of the last four years.

They enjoy winning this event not only for themselves, but for the Oswego Country Club community as well.

“The members like to see us play well, so I think it’s good for their club and their atmosphere there,” Marshall said. “It’s definitely a tournament we want to win every year.” If it were not for Oswego Country Club, it would be difficult for Oswego State to host tournaments and have a varsity golf team.

“[Oswego Country Club] has worked great with our programs throughout the years,” Howard said. “Without that facility, it would be hard to sponsor golf here in Oswego. So, we’re fortunate to have them as our home course. The superintendent and his staff do a phenomenal job at maintaining the golf course.”

With a par-71 golf course, a distance of 6,424 yards from the tips and slippery fast greens, Oswego Country Club offers a unique advantage from which the Lakers hope to benefit. “It’s probably not as long as some of the courses we play, but the greens are certainly the challenge,” Howard said. “I think conditions-wise, it’s probably one of the best courses we’re going to [compete on] this year.”

Practicing and playing the course often is the norm to defend their home course, but Howard likes to utilize computer analytics and evaluate the difficulty of each hole and how they should strategize each of them.

“We have Golfstat. We go in and it will give us statistical review of what is the hardest hole,” Howard said. “Number 10 over the years has been the hardest hole in [tournament] play.”

As Owen looks to defend the team and individual award this weekend, he envisions one three-hole stretch at Oswego Country Club as a critical turning point in having a solid round.

“I would say the most important stretch is 10, 11 and 12,” Owen said. “If you’re making the turn around even a couple over par you got to get through 10, 11 and 12 even and go low on the back.”

The nine other Laker golfers representing Oswego State and the rest of the competitors will be set to tee off at 11:30 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday at the 20th Annual Oswego State Fall Invitational. For a full look at the course, visit the Oswego Country Club’s website.

Photo provided by Sports Information via C. Perkins