Team Finds Early Success in 2018 Kelbel Cup!

Team Nebraska (from left to right) includes Josh Baldus, Landon Maassen, Brendan Bond, Zach Sachen, Bill Rhiley, Austin Dell, and Coach Scott Holly
Team Nebraska (from left to right) includes Josh Baldus, Landon Maassen, Brendan Bond, Zach Sachen, Bill Rhiley, Austin Dell, and Coach Scott Holly

The 2018 Kelbel Cup was held at Aliante Golf Club on February 12-13 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Nebraska team was Josh Baldus, Brendan Bond, Austin Dell, Landan Maassen, Bill Rhiley and Zach Sachen.

We arrived in Las Vegas early Saturday morning and played a practice round at Aliante Golf Club that afternoon. It was a very windy day but we were able to get out and knock the rust off the clubs.

On Sunday we traveled to Mesquite, NV to play Wolf Creek Golf Club. Sunday was a perfect day to play and a great course to get dialed in for the tournament. This was definitely a treat for us to play such a visually spectacular course that was in great condition with great weather.

Monday was the first tournament round with our 6-person team, teaming up in two-somes to play four-ball stroke play. This year’s event had live scoring through Golf Genius so everyone back at their respective universities, and their families and friends could follow the event in real-time. Click here and use GGID = KELBEL18 to view details of the event.

The team of Baldus-Sachen bogeyed their last two holes to shoot even par and the teams of Bond-Dell and Maassen-Rhiley both finished at one over par. After Round 1 we were sitting in good shape (second place) and the standings were NMSU = 213, Nebraska = 218, UCCS = 221, UNLV = 225.

After the round Monday all the competitors had dinner in the clubhouse and listened to a presentation from Mark Kelbel, Brother of Ed Kelbel, for which the event is named. Mark is the Head professional at The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, CO. He spoke about his brother, who was the director of the UCCS PGA Golf Management program when he passed and gave great advice to all the competitors about their careers and lives.

Tuesday’s round was a 2-person scramble format and we started off slowly compared to the field. It was late in the round before the Nebraska teams started making birdies and had already lost several strokes to the field. The team of Baldus-Sachen shot 4 under, Bond-Dell were at 1 under, and the Maassen-Rhiley team finished at even par.

New Mexico State ended up running away with the tournament shooting a two day total of 27 under par. Nebraska ended up finishing fourth after a poor showing on day two, but everyone enjoyed the experience and met some new friends.

Next year we hope to be able to bring the Kelbel Cup back to Nebraska!

More details at: https://go.unl.edu/oz5e