Men’s Golf Set For MVC Title Defense

Duane Zehr

Live Scoring

Men's Golf 4/19/2019 10:15:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- After winning the first Missouri Valley Conference title in program history last year, Bradley Men's Golf is ready to try to defend its crown when the Braves head to Sunrise Beach, Mo., for the 2019 MVC Championship, which will be held Monday and Tuesday at the par-72 Club at Porto Cima.

Just like last year, Bradley was picked to finish fourth according to the MVC pre-championship poll released Friday morning with the Braves receiving 56 points. Missouri State was third in the according the vote of the league coaches with 60 points, while Southern Illinois was second at 72 points. Illinois State received all nine first-place votes and was the unanimous favorite for the second consecutive year.

The MVC Championship returns to The Club at Porto Cima for the first time since 2015, with the Braves tying for fourth that season.

Play gets underway Monday morning with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start for the opening two rounds of the 54-hole tournament. Tuesday's final round will begin at 8 a.m. with tee times. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live scoring for all three rounds.

Senior Drake Bushong won the medalist title at last year's MVC Championship and he is the only three-time All-MVC performer in school history. In fact, Bushong will be trying to become just the seventh four-time All-Valley honoree in league history. He has placed in the top 16 at the MVC Championship each of his three previous trips and owns a 74.44 career stroke average at the MVC Championship.

Bushong's 73.29 season stroke average would rank sixth among Bradley season marks and is currently ninth in the MVC in 2018-19. He has been Bradley's top finisher in five of nine events this season, including earlier this week at the Old Waverly Collegiate, where he matched his lowest round of the spring with a two-under 70 in the final round. In four career tournaments in the state of Missouri, Bushong owns a 72.55 career stroke average (11 rounds).

Junior Charles Jahn enters the MVC Championship with a team-best 73.13 stroke average this season, which is eighth-best in the MVC. The only individual to place among Bradley's top three finishers in all nine tournaments, Jahn owns the third-best season stroke average in Bradley history and is tied with Bushong and Michael Mounce with a team-high five top-20 finishes this year. Jahn owns a team-best 73.89 stroke average this spring.

Mounce also matched his low round of the spring with a two-under 70 in Tuesday's final round of the Old Waverly Collegiate and tied for second at last year's MVC Championship to earn All-MVC honors. His career-best 73.50 stroke average, which is 13th in the MVC this year, would rank ninth among Bradley season marks, while his current career average of 74.95 per round would be fifth all-time at BU. Mounce has also enjoyed trips to the Show-Me State, with a 73.36 career stroke average in 11 career rounds in the state of Missouri.

Senior Daniel Lensing is the only Brave to play a collegiate event at The Club at Porto Cima, tying for 16th at the 2015 MVC Championship as a freshman. Lensing fired an opening round one-under 71 in 2015 and wrapped up a 10-over (226) performance with a 73 in his last visit to Sunrise Beach, Mo. Currently 21st in stroke average in the MVC at 74.13 per round, Lensing's only previous MVC Championship experience was his freshman campaign in 2014-15.

Fellow senior Branden Mounce will be playing at the MVC Championship for the second time in his career, also teeing it up for the Braves at the 2017 Championship at Cog Hill in Lemont, Ill., where he tied for 21st. Branden has been Bradley's top finisher twice this spring and matched his best round of the year in the final round of the Twin Oaks Intercollegiate in Springfield, Mo., in Bradley's only other visit to the state of Missouri this season.

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