“To me, this is a really exciting time for Michigan State golf,” Puryear said. “Now we can build a really solid championship foundation and go forward.”

One reason for Puryear’s excitement is the success individual golfers have had during summer tournaments. Last season, senior Jack Newman won the U.S. Amateur Public Links and qualified for the 2009 Masters. This year, sophomores Chris Mory and Jimmy Dewling each had successful summers — with Mory winning the GAM Championship — after seeing significant action at the end of their freshman seasons.

The improvement of those two players, as well as the addition of freshman James Ross and Will Morris, make up a couple of key losses from last year’s team.

Payne Gniewek — who played in 11 events as a junior last season — transferred from MSU to Baylor at the end of last season, mainly to be closer to his teaching professional, who is located in Austin, Texas. Another disheartening loss was Graham Baillargeon, who played in 12 events last season as a sophomore. Baillargeon is trying to take time away from the game after a disappointing performance in last year’s Big Ten Tournament.

Those losses aside, Puryear is excited about the future of the program, mainly because the team returns all but one golfer from the lineup they took into last year’s NCAA South Central Regional.

“What we have now is that much more important, and we have some great guys here,” Puryear said. “It actually opened up some chances for some other guys because everybody that played in our regional, with the exception of Payne, is back. … In all honesty, we have the same team back, just minus the one guy.”

Topy Cup experience
Puryear billed the Topy Cup as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and less than a week after returning from Tokyo, Puryear said the event was everything he and the Spartans had hoped for.

“I think for the guys it really opened their eyes. If you can imagine a city with 30 million people, I mean it’s unbelievable,” Puryear said. “The food was totally different. The guys were excited to see McDonald’s.”

The Spartans competed in the 27th annual Topy Cup in Japan last weekend, finishing seventh. Although the Spartans were hoping for a better team performance, the chance to experience a different culture was something they soon won’t forget.

Among the most difficult tasks was trying to travel around the city on their off day taking the subway and bullet trains. Luckily for the Spartans, Puryear said they had sophomore and “master navigator” Dan Ellis, who followed the color-coded lines on the subway map to make sure the Spartans knew where they were.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing to get to go to a country as far away as Japan and see their culture,” Ellis said. “Barring the golf we played, it was a great experience for me.”

Spartan Classic
For the second consecutive year, the men’s golf team will host the Spartan Classic in the Upper Peninsula at The Kingsley Cup.

Puryear said one reason for playing the tournament away from Forest Akers West Golf Course is to promote the fact that MSU is the state school in Michigan. Another is to highlight the golf in northern Michigan, which is widely known to have some of the best courses in the nation.

The 54-hole event will begin with 36 holes Saturday and 18 holes Sunday. Five of the 14 teams in the tournament are traveling from California, and the Spartans will have two teams in the tournament, allowing all of their golfers to participate.