Northwestern University Athletics
1998-99 Men's Golf Recap
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Donald's performance vaulted NU to a third-place team finish at the NCAA Championships. It marked the school's second-best team showing at NCAAs. The Wildcats were national runner-up in 1942. In the final national rankings compiled by Golfstat, Northwestern finished as the second-ranked team in the country behind only NCAA champion Georgia. NU has now finished in the top 20 at NCAAs in three-straight seasons for the first time in school history.
During the spring season, the Wildcats earned team titles in four of their eight events. NU's first title came in March at the Aldila Collegiate Classic in San Diego. April brought the Wildcats back-to-back championships at the Marshall Invitational and Ohio State's Kepler Intercollegiate.
NU's biggest win, however, came on May 14-16 as the 'Cats won the Big Ten title, coming from behind in the final round to defeat host-school Minnesota by three strokes. In the process, NU set a Big Ten record with a team score of 1,131, seven strokes better than Indiana's previous mark set in 1991. For the spring, the Wildcats would finish either first or second in seven-straight events prior to the team's third-place NCAA showing.
Donald earned several awards this season. As NCAA champion, he was awarded the Arnold Palmer trophy. Two days later, the Golf Coaches Association of America awarded him the Jack Nicklaus Award as the National Player of the Year. Donald also earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors and won the Golfstat Cup, given to the player with the nation's lowest stroke average. Donald's stroke average of 70.45 broke Tiger Woods' Golfstat Cup record of 70.61 set in 1996. It also set a Northwestern single-season record, set by Donald last season as a freshman.
Donald was not the only Wildcat to earn honors this season. Junior Jess Daley was named All-Big Ten for the first time in his career. Daley finished second on the team with a 73.49 stroke average. Daley's stroke average is good for seventh on the all-time NU single-season charts. Erik Ciotti, who also qualified for this year's U.S. Open, finished the season with a 73.95 stroke average, ranking him ninth in NU history. Josh Habig, who earned Academic All-America honors from the GCAA, posted the 10th-best stroke average in school history at 74.28. In addition, Pat Goss earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors for the second time in his three seasons. Under his tutelage this season, all six Wildcats who saw tournament action recorded at least one top-10 individual finish.
