DOWAGIAC — The Edwardsburg golf team will take a 10-point advantage into the Wolverine Conference Tournament hosted by Otsego at Lake Doster Thursday.

The Eddies have won seven of the 10 conference jamborees, including the final seven of the regular season, to amass 97 points.

Plainwell is the runner-up with 87 points, while Three Rivers is third with 69 and Paw Paw fourth with 65.

Dowagiac rounds out the top five with 54 points.

Edwardsburg coach Jeff Kozinski has his team focused on each player doing his job.

“Our goal going into Thursday’s conference championship is to reach our team goal of 42/42 which equals 84 for each player,” he said. “We were able to accomplish that goal during the regular season.  I tell our guys to break their rounds up into rounds of three. If they go 2-over par on each round that is a 42 when we play nine holes and that’s an 84 when we play 18.” 

Kozinski said if each player does that, then the results will take care of themselves.

“If the players reach our team goal, we might have a chance to have five guys make all-conference,” he said.

Dowagiac coach Bob Turner knows that his team has a lot of work to do if it wants to improve upon its current fifth-place spot in the standings.

“We would like to finish in the top three at the conference tournament,” he said. “We went on a bad stretch a couple weeks ago. We started playing a little better last week. We know we can be in the top three. We probably can’t move up much in standings, but we can place top three at conference tournament.”

The individual race for league medalist also finds Edwardsburg at the top of the standings.

Freshman Satchel Pierce leads Allegan’s Remy Franklin by a comfortable margin heading into the final 18 holes of the conference season.

Pierce has a stroke average of 39.000, while Franklin stands at 40.500. Jacob Farris of Plainwell is currently third with an average of 40.600.

“In order for Satchel to win the medalist, he just needs to play his game,” Kozinski said. “He has matured this year as a freshman and has adapted to high school golf. Mother Nature didn’t help out early in the season, but she’s starting to come around. They are calling for nice weather.”

Dowagiac’s Nick Saltzman is also looking for a spot on the all-conference team.

“Nick just needs to do what he has done all year,” Turner said. “He is in fourth place in the conference and he would have to have almost get disqualified to not make it.”

WOLVERINE CONFERENCE

GOLF STANDINGS

Edwardsburg 97, Plainwell 87, Three Rivers 69, Paw Paw 65, Dowagiac 54, Allegan 52, South Haven 41, Vicksburg 38, Sturgis 36, Otsego 10

Top 10 individuals

Satchel Pierce (ED) 39.000, Remy Franklin (A) 40.500, Jacob Farris (PL) 40.600, Garon Carrubba (ED) 42.00, David Kanczuzewski (ED) 42.400, Nick Saltzman (D) 43.500, Bennett Cooper (PP) 43.500, Brayden Bell (ED) 43.900, Austin McKee (TR) 44.000, Calvin Trammell (TR) 44.111

Additional Dowagiac golfers

Drew Davis 48.600, Drew Phillips 49.000, Matt Mosier 49.500, Lewis Hartsig 53.500, Jonathon Stockwell 56.000

Additional Edwardsburg golfers

Lee Ackerson 44.500, Cody Closson 47.875

Team scoring average

Edwardsburg 167.10, Plainwell 176.50, Three Rivers 184.40, Paw Paw 187.80, Dowagiac 191.20, Allegan 192.60, South Haven 197.50, Vicksburg 199.30, Sturgis 200.20, Otsego 223.13