NMJC (M-Golf) Starts National Championship Quest in Newton
The defending national champion NMJC men's golf team competes at the 2025 NJCAA Men's Golf National Championship in Newton, Kan., at Sand Creek Station Golf Club Tuesday, May 13 at 8:20 a.m. CDT.
The 72-hole tournament hosted by Hutchinson CC takes place May 13-16 and is 18 holes each day. The Thunderbirds won the 2024 NJCAA Men's Golf National Championship for the first time in school history in dramatic fashion last season defeating Odessa College by three shots.
NMJC is familiar with the Sand Creek Station course as they won the national preview there in 2022 and placed eighth overall in the fall of 2024. The Gil Williams led team comes into the tournament ranked No. 4 in the country behind No. 1 Midland, No. 2 Odessa, and No. 3 Hutchinson CC.
Coach Williams and company come into nationals with one win on the season. The victory was at the Colin Montgomerie Invite, a DI tournament the T-Birds have won two years straight.
NMJC has nine top-5 finishes as a team and nine top-5 finishes individually in the 2024-25 season. The squad also has won individually three times with Oliver Ruutu (Thunderbird Invitational), Elias Pettersson (Colin Montgomerie Invite), and PJ Herron (The Southwest Region V Championship).
"Those guys (Oliver, Elias, and PJ) all have two things in common, they are all confident and they compete," NMJC men's golf head coach Gil Williams said. "Pairing the confidence to go hit a big shot with the competitiveness to continue to grind when you're out of position is huge in tough fields."
Elias Pettersson will lead the T-Birds as their No. 1 player this week. Pettersson tees off at 9 a.m. CDT on hole 10. The sophomore finished in a tie for sixth place at the national preview at 6-over and heads into Tuesday ranked as the No. 14 individual in the country.
PJ Herron slots in the No. 2 spot. Herron will tee off at 8:50 a.m. on Hole 10. The freshman is ranked No. 31 in the country individually.
Sophomore Henry Drake is the No. 3 man and tees off at 8:40 a.m. CDT. The Englishman tied for 33rd place at the preview and is ranked No. 28 in the NJCAA. The T-Bird faithful would love to see the same heroics from 2024 nationals that saw Drake shoot a tournament-low 6-under 65 in the final round.
Freshman Oliver Ruutu slides in at No. 4 this week in the lineup. Ruutu tied for 10th place at the national preview in October of 2024, is ranked No. 25 individually, and will tee off at 8:30 a.m. CDT.
The final T-Bird in the lineup is Jake Yrene. The freshman from Albuquerque, NM finished T-52 at the national preview in the fall. Yrene tees off at 8:20 a.m. CDT and heads into nationals ranked No. 72.
Nick Friedrichsen is the substitute this week for the Thunderbirds and is ranked No. 64 in the NJCAA. The substitute can be inserted into the Thunderbirds lineup at the start of each round due to an injury or because of performance.
The Thunderbirds will hope for better weather than what they saw in the final round in 2023 at Sand Creek Station where NMJC placed fourth at nationals. There are a few keys Coach Williams is looking for this week in order to have a good showing in Newton, Kan.
"This year the forecast looks great so I would expect it to be set up long," Coach Williams said. "It is already a long course and with the rough grown out like it is it will be imperative to be in good position off the tee. We have some good ball strikers on our team with good length off the tee, so if we can get to our spots we should have an opportunity for some good numbers."
If the T-Birds want a high finish this week they will have to be poised according to Coach Williams.
"We have to be poised. On a course as tough as Sand Creek bad holes are going to happen. We need to be emotionally mature enough not to let a bad hole turn into a bad round."
Tee times are as follows from hole 10, Jake Yrene will tee off at 8:20 a.m CDT, Oliver Ruutu at 8:30 a.m. CDT, Henry Drake at 8:40 a.m. CDT, PJ Herron at 8:50 a.m. CDT, and Elias Pettersson at 9 a.m CDT.
T-Bird fans can follow the live scoring by clicking here and for live updates follow NMJC men's golf's Instagram @nmjc_mgolf.
