The North Central Missouri College men's golf team traveled to Wichita, Kansas on Monday and Tuesday to compete in the NJCAA DII South Central District Championship at the Auburn Hills Golf Course hosted by Hesston College. The Pirates competed in 36 holes on Monday and concluded the tournament with 18 holes on Tuesday. "I want to give a huge thanks to Lowell Stephens at Hesston and Scot Weller at Auburn Hills GC for hosting a great district tournament. We could not stay away from the rain this spring so the course played a little longer which made everybody in the field give the golf course their full attention. The guys came in with the mentality of playing their best golf and they really had a good showing going up against a very tough district in Division II," commented first year coach Nate Swann.

Kyle Steel led the Pirates individually at the tournament putting together great opening rounds of 74-74 on Monday. Steel followed up the twin 74's with a (-1) 71 on Tuesday which secured a playoff spot with Mason Sebrant from Murray State College who also shot a 54-hole score of 219. The sudden death playoff was to determine the last individual for a trip to the National Tournament. Steel survived the 4-hole playoff to become the first Pirate golfer to advance to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament since 2019. At the conclusion the event Steel was also recognized for earning 1^st Team All-Region and All-District which is awarded to the Top 10 golfers at the District Tournament. "Hats off to Kyle for putting on ball striking clinic these last couple days. He had a very simple game plan of hitting fairways and greens in regulation. It was really nice to see him peak at the right time of the year and I am extremely proud of him for keeping his composure throughout the playoff against an extremely solid competitor in Sebrant. This just shows how tough our District really is. We knew Mineral Area was playing terrific golf this spring and Tyler Junior College, who is ranked 5^th in NJCAA Division II, would be at the top of almost any leaderboard you see."

Cam Bates and Austin Lasher also had a solid showing for NCMC posting 54-hole scores of 244 and 245 respectively. Bates finished in a tie for 23^rd place after posting scores of 82-82-80 and Lasher, shooting 81-83-81, placed 25^th at the conclusion of the event. "Austin and Cam had an overall consistent year for us and I am very pleased with the work that they put in. At the end of the day they just weren't able to score their golf ball as well as they would have liked but they both matured throughout the year and know exactly what they need to do in the offseason to make their scoring better next fall."

Steel, Bates and Lasher will all be returning to NCMC for the 2022-23 school year which is a great core for Pirates golf to build around.  "With all 3 of my guys returning we are going to have 7 new faces who are coming into our program this fall who are going to be motivated to be in those spots when August rolls around. I expect everyone to have a solid summer schedule and continue to get better as players. Everybody has the tools in the bag but we will find out who buys into our system and who doesn't".

Kyle Steel will now turn his attention to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament on May 17^th-20^th.  That event will be held at the Twin Hills Country Club in Joplin, Missouri.