Spencer Slade has returned home to Michigan to play his senior year of the men’s golf season for Eastern Michigan University. This will be his first year playing for EMU after transferring during his sophomore year from Savannah State University, a small school in Georgia with less than 5,000 students, where he played his freshman year.
“I was born and raised here in Ypsilanti,” he said. “I was very fortunate to grow up here and I am very grateful for my parents.”
Slade attended Saline High School and said he is happy to be playing back in Michigan.
“I have been golfing since I was two years old,” Slade said. “My favorite golf course I have ever played is the one I grew up playing on in Ypsilanti called Polo Fields … on Packard Road and I could play it all day and all night.”
EMU’s team struggled at the Windon Memorial tournament last weekend placing 15th. Slade performed well finishing the tournament coming in 50th overall with a score of 232.
“This last weekend was a disaster, for the team and me as a whole,” Slade said. “We all struggled. All three rounds it was an individual struggle for me and the team in general.”
The team is looking to bounce back at the next tournament they play at the Firestone course in Akron, Ohio. The team has played the course before and Slade was confident the team will perform better during their next outing.
“Most of the kids on the team have seen that course a couple times before, so I think we are going to have a good advantage going into it,” Slade said. “The travel is really a great part of being on the team; we get to see a lot of different courses and styles all from each part of the country.”
The team travels as far as University of South Florida in Dade City, Fla. this season and in March also travels to North Carolina, Virgina and Maryland.
“We spend a good portion of the fall in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and then we start to progress down south when the weather gets bad in the winter,” Slade said. “It’s important to keep your schedule together for classes and be on top of schoolwork with our tournaments and practice, which can be hard but it’s worth it.”
Slade’s goals for the season are to work on improving his game and working his way into the post season.
“I want to do well at every tournament we play at, I want to try and add on to my game every day in practice and I think I can do well in [Mid-American Conference] play and in the MAC tournament,” he said. “If everything works out I hope to play a good round in the National Collegiate Athletic Association regional and maybe play in the NCAA national championship if I make it.”
Slade, a marketing major, hopes to graduate this year.
“I better be graduating this year, I don’t have any real plans set yet for after,” he said.
Slade said he plans to enter into some amateur tournaments.
“I would most definitely enter into some amateur ones, but I’m not sure if I am good enough to enter a pro [tournament],” he said.
