The golf team is moving on to play again in the spring. Here is a jamboree-by-jamboree recap of the season:

Jamboree #1 at Albion: Calvin came in fifth with 324 strokes, their worst score of the season. Junior James VanNoord led the Knights, scoring a 74 and finishing tied for second.

Jamboree #2 at Adrian: Calvin won this jamboree with 298 strokes, 3 strokes ahead of Adrian. Senior Jake Hoogstrate shot a 73 to lead the Knights with his fifth place finish. VanNoord and sophomore Justin Crow tied for sixth, shooting 74. The Knights came out only one stroke behind Adrian for the MIAA leadership.

Jamboree #3 at Olivet: Calvin came in second with a score of 309, eight strokes behind Hope. VanNoord won, scoring a 71. Knights moved back to tied for second with Adrian behind Hope in MIAA rankings.

Jamboree #4 at Alma: Calvin and Hope tied with scores of 300. Crow tied with two Hope golfers for Medalist titles with scores of 72. Senior Mark Allen was close behind with a 73. Knights took sole possession of second place in the MIAA, five strokes behind Hope.

Jamboree #5 at Kalamazoo: Calvin came in second behind Trine with a score of 307. VanNoord led the Knights with a score of 73, a third place finish. Allen finished with a 74 for fourth place. The Knights were able to tie it up with Hope in the overall MIAA rankings.

Jamboree #6 at Trine: Calvin and Trine tied with scores of 288, Calvin’s lowest team score of the year. Freshman Brad Smith led the team with a score of 70, good for second place. VanNoord and Allen shot 71 and were able to claim fourth. The Knights moved into first place, six strokes ahead of Hope in the overall MIAA rankings.

Jamboree #7 at Hope: Calvin came in fourth with a score of 316, 26 strokes behind Hope, who won the jamboree. The Knights were led by Hoogstrate, who shot a 75 to win sixth place. The Knights moved down to second in the MIAA standings with a 20 stroke deficit between them and the Dutchmen.

Jamboree #8 at Calvin: Calvin came in second with a score of 314, one stroke behind Hope. The Knights were led by VanNoord, who shot a 77. They finished out the season 21 strokes behind Hope, but the Knights are still able to advance to the MIAA qualification tournament, which could allow them to advance the NCAA tournament in the spring.

Despite the sudden drop in standings, coach Brian Bolt called this season “a successful fall season. We won three of the eight tournaments and we had three guys finish in the top 12.”

Throughout the season VanNoord was in contention to win the MIAA Most Valuable Golfer award. Bolt was “surprised a little — I knew that James was good, but I didn’t know that he was going to be pushing for the top spot in the league. The fact that he finished in a very close second was a great surprise.”

For the spring, the Knights are looking to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. Calvin is joined by Hope, Trine and Adrian in the spring qualifiers. Bolt is thinking of the win, “It’s going to be really close. All four teams can win. We’re going to prepare for it thinking that we can win, obviously we were dead even with Hope in seven out of eight tournaments so we’re right there with them. We have to play better on those two courses, so it’s going to be at Watermark and Wuskowhan. We had a really bad outing at Wuskowhan and Hope had an excellent outing. Trine is also very good. So anticipate that any of the four teams could win.”