Kansas City Kansas Community College

Thanks to a big comeback, Kansas City Kansas Community College is headed for the Division II NJCAA National Golf Tournament for the seventh time in the last 10 years.

Sophomore Ben Moser, the Blue Devil Athlete of the Year from Washburn Rural in Topeka, will be joined by four freshmen in the tournament to be played at Hampton Cove in Huntsville, Ala., Tuesday through Friday, May 18-21. The freshmen, all from Kansas, are Luke Gordon, Marion; Trace McDiffett, Rossville; Jerry Chase, Sabetha; and Cole Murrin, Fort Scott.

Coach Gary Shrader is hopeful some concentrated work on the practice putting greens will have the Blue Devils ready. “Putting has not been as good as it needs to be,” said Shrader. “Our ball striking has been good but we’ve been taking 35-36 putts a round and that’s not good enough.”

While putting is always a key, so will keeping the ball in play at Hampton Cove. “It’s a real tough golf course,” said Shrader. “There are no bunkers but water comes in to play on 15 holes so there’s a huge premium on keeping the ball out of the water. Also, the greens can be hard and if you hit the wrong spot you can end up in the water.”

The Blue Devils will take a little momentum going into the national tournament. Three strokes back of arch-rival Johnson County at the halfway mark of the district tournament at Gothenburg, Neb., KCKCC knocked 18 strokes off its opening round and rallied to gain the final spot in the qualifying for the national tourney.

Gordon led the comeback with the tournament’s best round, a 3-under par 69 after an opening round 84, while three other Blue Devils also lowered their opening round scores. Moser, a first team All-Jayhawk selection, finished 17th with rounds of 76-75-151 while McDiffett joined Gordon in a 25th place tie at 153. Chase rounded out KCKCC’s 295 total, finishing 29th with a 79-76-155 while Murrin was 41st with 80-80-160.

“We played like freshmen the first round,” said KCKCC Coach Gary Shrader. “But then we had the two freshmen, Gordon and McDiffett, come in with good rounds and we held on.”

The Blue Devils finished fifth in the 36-hole qualifier with a 608 total that was three shots better than Johnson County. The first four places in the District qualifier all went to nationally ranked teams. No. 2 Indian Hills of Ottumwa, Iowa, edged No. 14 ranked Iowa Western by a single stroke (582-583) for the district title with Jayhawk champion and No. 7 ranked Hutchinson third (597) and No. 13 Dodge City fourth (599).