KU Freshman Chase Hanna and Company Travel to Crooked Stick in Indiana
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Chase Hanna and the Kansas men’s golf will compete in their third tournament of the 2013-14 fall season at the Crooked Stick Intercollegiate in Carmel, Ind., Oct. 14-15.
Hanna is coming off a top-five finish (216, E) at the Badger Invitational, which led the Jayhawks to a second-place finish, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, in Madison, Wis.
“I think I have the game to compete at the highest level,” Hanna said. “It’s all about eliminating your mistakes and keeping the big numbers off the card. I didn’t do a great job last week but I still managed to turn doubles into bogeys and bogeys into pars.”
After committing to Kansas Hanna spent his summer practicing and competing as much as he possibly could. One of the tournaments he entered was the Kansas Amateur Match Play Championship. Hanna not only competed in the event, but went on to be crowned the 2013 champion. Hanna becomes the 13th Jayhawk to win this tournament, joining the likes of Clay Deevers, Matt Gogel, Len Johnson Jr. and current PGA Tour professional Gary Woodland.
“I had a big summer and that was just a huge win for me,” Hanna said who earned the Kenneth Smith Award as the outstanding high school golfer following his senior season at Shawnee Mission East High School. “It gave me a lot of confidence moving forward, especially because you play against a lot of college golfers in the tournament.”
While this season is in full swing the Jayhawks look to face their toughest field yet this season as Kansas will be squaring off with the likes of Florida, Georgia and other top tier golf programs. KU will also get their first look at a conference opponent when TCU travels to Carmel this weekend as well.
“We kind of approach every tournament the same,” Hanna said. “We are obviously trying to win every tournament, so we aren’t going to approach it very differently just because we have a conference opponent in it. It’s going to be cool to see some tougher competition this week, especially TCU who has a pretty solid team this year.”
Hanna will be leading the first-year heavy Jayhawk squad as transfer sophomore Ben Welle and transfer junior Logan Philley will be competing in their third consecutive tournament of the season. Also getting his third tournament appearance is sophomore Jackson Foth, who placed in a tie for 10th (220, +4) last week at the Badger Invitational. Rounding out the Kansas five will be senior Ryley Haas, who will be making his first tournament appearance of the season.
The Crooked Stick Intercollegiate will be played on a 7,290-yard, par-72 course at the Crooked Stick Golf Club. The 14-team field, hosted by Indiana, includes Kansas, Arkansas, Ball State, Eastern Michigan, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, IUPUI, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Purdue, TCU and Toledo.
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