The men’s golf team has strung together some strong performances recently. Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics.
BROOKS BAKER-WATSON | STAFF REPORTER | bbakerwatson@butler.edu
In just under a month of play, the men’s golf team doubled the number of first places and tied the amount of second places they achieved during the 2024-25 season.
The Bulldogs have only played in three team tournaments so far. Out of those contests, they have placed first twice and second once.
In their lone second-place performance at the Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational hosted by Ball State, the Dawgs still played well. Senior leader Derek Tabor shot the best single round of the tournament at 5-under, with three more players from Butler shooting 2-under par or better. The team finished just three shots behind Ball State, who took first thanks to a record-breaking performance.
Beginning his fifth season as head coach of the Bulldogs, Dr. Colby Huffman is readying his team to make a run at the Big East title come springtime. Despite the hot start to the fall season, what matters to Huffman right now is making sure the team is constantly evolving their play.
“There’s always stuff to improve on,” Huffman said. “You look at the scores, [what] some of the historical top programs have shot, and you just got to keep cleaning things up … it’s just a matter of cleaning [those] little things up and following the process.”
If the dawn of this season is any indication, the process is paying off. This is the men’s best start through three tournaments since the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, where they began with two second-place finishes and one seventh-place finish.
Tabor believed that a strong season was only a matter of time under Huffman, who had the team practice and hone their skills during and outside of the school year.
“It’s been good,” Tabor said. “Colby [Huffman] gave us an outline [at the end of last year] of what to work on over the summer. He’s done a good job at that over the last couple of years so that we [have a] baseline [to start from].”
From this great start to the year, sophomore Logan Sutto — who tied the Butler single-round scoring mark record last week — believes this streak can only bring additional confidence to the Dawgs.
“The first three tournaments we played in gave us a lot of confidence,” Sutto said. “I feel like this team knows that we’re good and we are focused on just going out and winning … our team this year just has more of a will to win than last year.”
Tabor shared similar sentiments, expressing the importance of practice in elevating team spirit.
“We have good team chemistry,” Tabor said. “Practices are good, so I think it [helps boost] team morale and helps us when we go out and play.”
That determination and chemistry are exactly what the team needs to succeed this year, especially since the Big East has not seen a champion outside of Seton Hall, Georgetown, UConn and Marquette since 2014.
These past few weeks have featured dominant performances from the Bulldogs, who hope to continue this streak Oct. 13-14 at the Purdue Fall Invitational. It might only be the fall season, but the Dawgs are playing like they are already in the NCAA Championships.
