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March 31, 2004    
Malone Men’s Golf Coach Ken Hyland Earns Historic 100th Tournament Victory
Ken Hyland, Malone College men’s golf coach of 32 years, hit a milestone last weekend at the Malone Invitational played at Tannenhauf Golf Course in Alliance.  The Pioneer squad pocketed the tournament championship among a 16-team field, which gave Coach Hyland his 100th tournament victory as head coach of the Malone men’s golf team.

 

Coach Hyland’s first tournament victory was the 1976 NAIA District 22 Golf Championship.  With that victory, the Pioneers qualified for their first national championship under Hyland.  Since then, the Pioneer golf team has played in nineteen NAIA national championships. 

 

During the first ten years of his tenure, college golf competition consisted only of matches, either dual or tri.  Today, college golf consists entirely of tournaments ranging from fields of eight to thirty teams.  Hyland’s teams have won thirty district and conference championships and his victories at Malone’s own fall and spring invitationals total twenty-eight. 

 

The highlight of his coaching career was winning the 2000 NAIA National Championship in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Other memorable victories include winning two NCCAA National Championships, finishing first in the 1993 Tri-State Invitational where the Pioneers defeated Notre Dame and Ferris State (both by 2 shots), making a winning comeback in the 1994 Findlay Invitational when the team was sixteen shots behind the leader with 18 holes left to play, and finishing number one in the 2001 North Greenville Invitational that consisted of 33 very strong NAIA schools.  Hyland has also coached the United States NAIA/Junior College team to a gold medal in the 1996 World University Games held in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

 

Hyland believes his success lies in his players.  “Throughout the years, I have been blessed with great young men who have had exceptional talent,” said Hyland.  “This year’s team is no exception.  The current Pioneer team recorded the lowest fall team average in the school’s history and went on to win the Malone College Spring Invitational.”  A recent second-place finish at the Westminster Invitational by the “B” team added to the Pioneers expectations for a very successful spring season.  For Coach Hyland, his hopes are that the Pioneers can again win the “big one” - namely the NAIA national championship - for the school.