{"id":284263,"date":"2026-04-24T19:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T19:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/284263\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T19:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T19:54:08","slug":"golden-grizzlies-aim-for-second-hlgolf-title-at-2026-horizon-league-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/284263\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Grizzlies Aim for Second #HLGOLF Title at 2026 Horizon League Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n                        Story Links&#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                     ROCHESTER, Mich. \u2013 The Oakland University men&#8217;s golf team travels to Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, for the 2026 Horizon League Men&#8217;s Golf Championship, April 25-27. Hosted by the Greater Orlando Sports Commission, the championship will be held on the El Campeon course at Mission Resort + Club.<\/p>\n<p>The event features a three-day, 54-hole format, with 18 holes scheduled for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Oakland opens play on Saturday, paired with Cleveland State and Wright State. Pairings for the second and third rounds will be based on team and individual scores from the previous rounds. The men&#8217;s teams will tee off first on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. (ET) before following the women&#8217;s field on Sunday and Monday, with play beginning at noon both days.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 Horizon League Championship field includes Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy, Green Bay, IU Indianapolis, Northern Kentucky, Oakland, Purdue Fort Wayne, Robert Morris, Wright State, and Youngstown State. Wright State enters as the current No. 1 seed in the latest Clippd rankings, with the Golden Grizzlies close behind as the No. 2 seed.<\/p>\n<p>In last year&#8217;s championship, Oakland finished fifth with a 54-hole total of 905 (+41) after entering the event ranked second. Junior <a href=\"https:\/\/goldengrizzlies.com\/sports\/mens-golf\/roster\/matteo-rocco\/12371\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12371\" target=\"_blank\">Matteo Rocco<\/a> led the Golden Grizzlies with a sixth-place finish at 221 (+5), while alum Bhavi Sohal added a top-20 performance, placing\u00a019th at 227 (+11).<\/p>\n<p>This season, Oakland has compiled an impressive list of team and individual accomplishments. The Golden Grizzlies have recorded three top-three team finishes this season: first at the NKU Jewell Invitational, second at the Tom Tontimonia Invitational, and third at the Purdue Fall Invitational. They have also reset the program&#8217;s 54-hole scoring record three times, highlighted by an 855 at the Don Benbow Invitational \u2014 tied for the fifth-lowest total in Oakland men&#8217;s golf history.<\/p>\n<p>Individually, the Golden Grizzlies have been equally strong. Senior <a href=\"https:\/\/goldengrizzlies.com\/sports\/mens-golf\/roster\/luke-kelly\/12369\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12369\" target=\"_blank\">Luke Kelly<\/a> opened the year with the team&#8217;s only hole-in-one at the Golden Grizzlies Intercollegiate. Freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/goldengrizzlies.com\/sports\/mens-golf\/roster\/rakshit-dahiya\/12375\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12375\" target=\"_blank\">Rakshit Dahiya<\/a> earned Oakland&#8217;s lone #HLGOLF Athlete of the Week honor, and he secured two spots in the record book: his one-under 209 at the Don Benbow Invitational is tied for fifth on the program&#8217;s all-time list for lowest individual 54-hole score, and his four-under 66 in the second round there is tied for the third-lowest individual 18-hole score in school history.<\/p>\n<p>Heading into the Horizon League Championship, Oakland seeks its first league title since claiming its lone trophy in 2021. The Golden Grizzlies will compete with a lineup of Dahiya, Rocco, Kelly, junior <a href=\"https:\/\/goldengrizzlies.com\/sports\/mens-golf\/roster\/robert-burns\/12368\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12368\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Burns<\/a>, and redshirt junior <a href=\"https:\/\/goldengrizzlies.com\/sports\/mens-golf\/roster\/jack-zubkus\/12374\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12374\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Zubkus<\/a>, with senior <a href=\"https:\/\/goldengrizzlies.com\/sports\/mens-golf\/roster\/ellis-kinnaird\/12370\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12370\" target=\"_blank\">Ellis Kinnaird<\/a> serving as a substitute, as they pursue the program&#8217;s second #HLGOLF conference championship.<\/p>\n<p>HORIZON LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nSaturday | 7:30 AM Start &#8211; Round 1<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nPairings: Cleveland State and Wright State<\/p>\n<p>Sunday | 12 PM &#8211; Round 2<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nPairings TBD<\/p>\n<p>Monday | 12 PM &#8211; Final Round<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nPairings TBD<\/p>\n<p>Men&#8217;s Golf Seeding<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nWright State (175)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nOakland (210)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nCleveland State (248)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nPurdue Fort Wayne (251)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nIU Indianapolis (254)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nRMU (263)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nGreen Bay (264)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nYoungstown State (266)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nNorthern Kentucky (271)<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nDetroit Mercy (273)<\/p>\n<p>Live scoring and statistics for each round will be available on <a href=\"https:\/\/scoreboard.clippd.com\/tournaments\/244037\/scoring\/team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Clippd<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>How to Follow Oakland Men&#8217;s Golf: For complete information on Oakland Men&#8217;s Golf, follow the team on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/oaklandmgolf\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> and X at <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/OaklandMGolf\" rel=\"nofollow\">@OaklandMGolf<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Story Links&#13; &#13; ROCHESTER, Mich. \u2013 The Oakland University men&#8217;s golf team travels to Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-284263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}