KU men’s golf trying to stay hot through Big 12 tournament

LAWRENCE (KSNT) – The Jayhawks are riding their back-to-back runner-up finishes into the Big 12 tournament.

“Practices are a little higher intensity, but everybody knows what we’re playing for,” KU head men’s golf coach Jamie Bermel said.

KU men’s golf is confident, which is key for the team going into playoff golf.

“Confidence is big in golf and I think we have played better,” Bermel said. “The weather’s been better. We’ve had some good finishes, some individual good finishes. I think confidence is building, and hopefully we can continue on with that.”

Coaches are stressing one message: Don’t change anything.

“Not much is changing, so we’ve been sticking to really key things like putting, chipping a lot,” Gunnar Broin said.

Not only have the Jayhawks been finishing well as a team, but Broin tied for the second-best round in program history with a -9 round at the Hawkeye Invitational.

“For the first 36 holes, it wasn’t clicking until that final round,” Broin said. “Just being patient out there. Coach has been stressing all and every tournament, just be patient. Be patient. Pretty much, wait until the birdies come. Found a little bit of something the last day and hopefully we can keep that rolling into regionals and conference.”

Golf can be a tough sport to consistently win in, but the Jayhawks believe they can keep up the good work.

“It’s not as tough as it might seem,” Broin said. “My confidence is really high. I’m a confidence player. I feel like I’ve been stringing tournaments together all semester.”

KU learned a lot from its 2022 NCAA tournament run that is helping it to this recent success.

“Anything’s possible,” junior William Duquette said. “We were outside of the top five in the first and second round, and we ended up making it by quite a bit. Never give up and you never know what’s going to happen.”

The Big 12 Tournament is shorter than the NCAA regional. However, the game plan stays the same.

“You have to really pay attention to every shot and hopefully not give shots away because it usually comes down to one shot whether you qualify or not,” Bermel said.

KU tees off Monday at 9:07 a.m. and will be grouped with TCU.