Men’s golf picked eighth in 2020 HCAC preseason poll

CARMEL, Ind. – Heading into the upcoming spring season, the Defiance College men's golf team is picked to finish eighth this year among the nine Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference squads, according to the 2020 HCAC Men's Golf Preseason Poll. The poll was comprised in a vote of the conference's head coaches and released by the HCAC office on Wednesday afternoon.

Defiance came in with 18 points in the poll, five more than Anderson University. Transylvania University, which has claimed the last 13 conference championships, received 78 points and seven first-place votes to earn the top spot, ahead of Earlham College (71 points, one first-place vote), Hanover College (60), Franklin College (56, one), Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (42), Mount St. Joseph University (40) and Bluffton University (27).

The Yellow Jackets also had one player named to the 2020 HCAC Golf Athletes to Watch list in junior Hayden Clingaman (Stryker, Ohio/Stryker). The 6-foot-4, 180-pound Clingaman was DC's top finisher in all five tournaments in the fall, including tying for eight place among 65 competitors after firing an 80 at the Lourdes Invitational on Sept. 25. Last spring, he shot in the 70s five times with a low round of 74. Clingaman, a two-year letterman for Defiance, also placed in the top 20 twice last spring, including one top-10 showing.

Under head coach Allen Curtiss, the Yellow Jackets are scheduled to open their spring campaign at the Deercroft Spring Break Invite, hosted by St. Andrews University at Deercroft Golf Club in Wagram, North Carolina, on March 14-15.