Courtesy: UMKC Athletics Senior Michael Schnegelberger and the UMKC men's golf team will open its spring season at the Beaumont Classic in California on Monday and Tuesday.

This Week
The UMKC men’s golf team will open its spring season on Mar. 2-3 in sunny Beaumont, Calif., at the Braveheart Classic.  The tournament, which is being hosted by UC Riverside, will be held at Oak Valley Golf Club with 9:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. (CST) shotgun starts scheduled for Monday and Tuesday mornings.

The Competitors
The Kangaroos will send junior Alex Hogben, redshirt juniors Brett Iliff and Jordan Miller, sophomore Trevor Hampton and redshirt senior Michael Schnegelberger to California on Monday and Tuesday to compete in the Braveheart Classic.

The Field
The 18-team field will include: Arizona, Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge, Gonzaga, Kansas State, LaVerne, Long Beach State, Loyola Chicago, Loyola Marymount, UMKC, Oral Roberts, Oregon, Sacramento State, Tennessee, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside and Utah State.

Last Competition
The Kangaroos closed out its fall season by tying for seventh place at the UTA/Waterchase Invitational on October 27-28 in Fort Worth, Texas.  UMKC finished the tournament tied with fellow Summit League foe Oral Roberts with a 54-hole total of 909.  Redshirt sophomore Josh Taylor paced the team in the competition, as he tied for 13th place with a 224.  

Mr. Consistent
Junior Alex Hogben paced the Kangaroos in three of the team’s five fall tournaments.  The England native tallied three top-15 finishes, as he finished with a team-best 74.7 scoring average over 15 rounds.  Hogben also has four rounds at or below par this season, which is tops on the team.    
    During his first two and a half years in Blue and Gold, Hogben has a total of eight top-10 finishes and 15 top-15 showings.

Hogben Goes Low In Broken Arrow
Junior Alex Hogben posted the lowest single round for the Kangaroos this season with his five-under par 67 over his second round at the Golf Club of Oklahoma on Sept. 29.  The 67 was a career-low round for Hogben at UMKC, and it is tied for the third lowest round in school history.  

The Summit League Championship Is Headed For KC
UMKC will serve as the host institution for the 2009 Summit League Men’s Golf Championship.  The tournament will be contested on April 27-28 at the Oakwood Country Club in Kansas City, Mo.

UMKC Favored To Claim League Title In 2009
UMKC was selected as the preseason favorite to claim The Summit League men’s golf title in a vote of the league’s 10 head coaches.  The Kangaroos received three first place votes en route to 75 points to finish atop the preseason poll.  South Dakota State tallied a league-high six first place tallies, but came in second with 66 points.

Coach VanDenBorn
J.W. VanDenBorn is in his second season as the Director of Golf for UMKC, where he oversees both the men’s and women’s golf programs. Overall, VanDenBorn has been the head coach for the men’s golf program for the past five years.  In 2008, he guided the Kangaroos to a runner-up finish at The Summit League Championships.  The second place finish is tied for the second best league finish in school history.          
    In his five years, VanDenBorn has guided his squad to four top-four finishes.  In 2006, he coached Stephen Clark to the Mid-Con Player of the Year honors, which was the first such honor in the program’s history.