The Valparaiso University men's golf program has announced its schedule for the 2025-2026 season, which will feature 11 tournaments, four during the fall and seven during the spring culminating with the 2025 Missouri Valley Conference Championship, which will take place April 26-28 at Annbriar Golf Club in Waterloo, Iowa.
"The team is excited to start our competitive season after a very productive summer," head coach Dave Gring said. "We haven't played together in almost four months, since the close of our spring season. The guys played in a wide variety of local, state and national tournaments this summer, and they are genuinely 'fired up' to get our 2025-26 season rolling. We've had just over two weeks of team practices since the start of school, so we're ready to travel and see how we match up with teams from all over the country."
The journey to the championship begins in Browns Summit, N.C. as the Beacons tee off the season at the Bryan National Collegiate, hosted by UNC Greensboro at Bryan Park GC. This will mark the second straight season that the Brown & Gold has played in that tournament.
The second weekend of the season will feature the Badger Invitational, hosted by Wisconsin, at TPC Wisconsin in Madison, Wis. as the squad makes its first appearance in that tournament. The final weekend of September will bring with it another first-time destination for the program as Valpo plays in Rice's Bayou City Collegiate Classic at Westwood Golf Club in Houston.
The fall slate concludes with another nearby tournament as the Beacons stay in state to play the Purdue Fall Invitational on Oct. 13-14 at Kampen Course in West Lafayette. This will mark Valpo's first trip to Purdue since Fall 2012 aside from one Beacon individual participating in the 2024 NCAA West Lafayette Regional.
A busy spring slate begins with the Lake Jovita Invitational, cohosted by Ball State and Richmond, on Feb. 9-10 at Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club south course in Dade City, Fla. The Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate is on the docket for Feb. 23-25 at The Classic Club in Palm Desert, Calif. The Beacons will head to Western Carolina's Peoples Golf Championship (Sea Palms Resort in St. Simons Island, Ga.) on March 12-14 and the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate (RTJ Magnolia Grove Falls Course in Mobile, Ala.) on March 30-31.
Each of the first three tournaments of the spring are new to Valpo's schedule, while the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate is back for the third straight year. The Beacons will return to the Bluegrass Collegiate Invitational hosted by Kentucky at the University Club of Kentucky in Lexington on April 13-14, the program's first time participating in that tournament since the 2013-14 campaign and fourth time overall.
The final tune-up prior to the conference championship will occur at the Iowa Spring Invitational on April 20-21 at Blue Top Ridge GC in Riverside, Iowa. Valpo last played on that course in October 2022 as part of the Iowa Fall Classic.
"This will be one of the most competitive schedules that we have put together," Gring said. "Eight of our ten regular-season tournaments are new compared to last year and six of those are brand new tournaments and golf courses that we haven't seen before. It's hard to believe that this will be the first year that we will play a regular season tournament in both Texas and California. We will travel all over the country, from St. Simons Island, Ga. to Houston, Texas to Palm Desert, California. We're also excited to play in three tournaments hosted by Big-10 teams here in the Midwest. We're ready to get after it and compete against some high-quality teams this year."
The Beacons will look to continue the program's recent tradition of athletic success as Valpo boasted an individual NCAA Regional qualifier for the fourth straight year in 2024-25 and the top six players on the team all improved their scoring averages from the previous season. The Beacons have earned team postseason opportunities in two of the last three seasons.
