On the Ball: Super Sophomore Trio Brings Chargers Golf to the Forefront
Written by James Gensterblum, ’12
The first month of college for a freshman is supposed to be a time of transition and adjustment to new responsibilities and a new life.
It’s not usually a time to be bringing home trophies.
However, a trio of precocious men’s golfers at Hillsdale College—Oliver Marshall, Ryan O’Rourke, and Robert Thompson—defied the odds and celebrated their first month at Hillsdale with a team title in their sport, kicking off a banner first year with the Chargers in the 2023-24 season.
Now second-year players at Hillsdale, the trio forms the core of a group that’s challenging to bring home the men’s golf program’s first spring conference championship and to reach the NCAA Regional round for the first time in four years—and just the third time in program history.
“Once these three players were signed in November of 2022, it was easy to take a step back and see the potential of what they could do together,” Hillsdale Men’s Golf Coach Matt Thompson said. “They’ve been able to do it faster than we could have hoped, but from the start, we felt like we had the foundation of something special.”
When Marshall, O’Rourke, and Thompson entered Hillsdale in August of 2023, it quickly became apparent that they weren’t going to be sitting and learning behind their older teammates for very long.
All three came to Hillsdale with extensive high-level golf experience in the junior golf ranks, including top-level talent development circuits like the American Junior Golf Association and the Junior PGA. That meant they were no strangers to the stacked fields and small margin for error in college golf.
It’s common practice in collegiate golf for teams to hold a qualifying event before their first official competition, with the results playing a big role in determining the five golfers who take the lead in subsequent invitationals. In Hillsdale’s first qualifier of the 2023-24 campaign, Marshall, O’Rourke, and Thompson took the top three spots, beating out every returning golfer on the Chargers’ squad and cementing their presence in the lineup.
“That first qualifier really opened our eyes that we were ready to compete at this level, and that for our team to reach the goals we had set, we had to step up,” Marshall said. “That made me want to work even harder, and I could tell the other guys in my class felt the same.”
With its freshman trio leading the way, Hillsdale exploded out of the gates in the 2023-24 season. The Chargers captured the team title at the season-opening Malone-Glenmoor Invite in September 2023, Hillsdale’s first team trophy at an invitational since 2019. Marshall, O’Rourke, and Thompson all finished in the top 10 as individuals to help lock up the trophy.
For the rest of the 2023-24 campaign, the freshman trio played in all nine events for Hillsdale, and all three excelled, combining for eight top-10 finishes with Marshall and Thompson each earning All-G-MAC honors.
For the trio, it was a quick adjustment to the team aspect of collegiate golf. Team play is somewhat unusual at most levels of golf, which is often considered an individual sport, but that facet is something all three have come to enjoy for similar reasons.
“When you’re part of a team, it gives you extra motivation on the course,” O’Rourke said. “When you’re just playing for yourself in a tournament, if you start with a bad round, it’s tempting to just go through the motions the rest of the weekend because you no longer have a chance to win.
“Here, even if you have a bad start, you can still help your team with your score by bouncing back and playing well the next day. I love that, because every time you tee off, it means something for your team, and you have a chance to make a difference.”
Another benefit of the team environment at Hillsdale, all three players say, is the spirited competition in practice and on the course that comes with being surrounded by other passionate golfers working every day to hone their craft.
“Obviously, all three of us are competitive people, and like every golfer, you want to see your name at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the day,” Robert Thompson said. “From a team perspective, that’s only a good thing, because if all three of us are battling at the top of the leaderboard, our team score is going to be great.
“It’s the same thing in practice. We’re each working hard to be the best we can be, but we know that for us to do what we want to do as a team, it’s going to take all of us playing at an elite level. We reach that point by pushing each other to excel.”
With the first half of the 2024-25 season in the books, Hillsdale has put itself in a good position to make the NCAA Regional. Although Marshall missed the fall season due to an injury, Thompson and O’Rourke both played sensational golf to help lead the Chargers, while another pair of impact freshmen, Jackson Piacsek and Aryan Sharma, also made huge early contributions.
With Marshall slated to return for the second half of the season this spring, Hillsdale looks poised to make a run. The team will have an added boost with the completion of an indoor training facility that opened in December—the brand-new Salmans Golf Performance Center at Hayden Park that includes an indoor practice green and four hitting bays. The new building, funded by generous donations, will make it easier for the Chargers to stay sharp and continue improving over the winter. A more skilled team should make a spring push to return to the NCAA Regional easier.
“Previously, when the snow hit, we had one indoor simulator that we had to share across 11 guys, which made it challenging to get the work done we needed to get done to stay sharp,” Marshall said. “The new building is going to be a game-changer for us.
“Now we can have four people practicing at once, and we can continue working on our short game and our chipping even indoors, which is something that usually drops off over the winter months.”
Hillsdale will pick up competition again in March, with an eye toward the G-MAC Championships scheduled to take place on April 21-23, 2025, at Belterra Resort in Florence, Indiana. A strong performance there could cement the Chargers’ spot in the NCAAs and continue Hillsdale’s climb.
“I think the biggest thing is just to keep grinding and getting better every day,” Robert Thompson said. “We know we have the ability to do it, but now we have to put in the work and develop the consistency to get it done when it counts the most.”
James Gensterblum is the Director of Athletic Communications at Hillsdale College.
A 2012 graduate of Hillsdale College, James worked in print journalism as a sportswriter and editor in Michigan and Indiana for eight years prior to returning to Hillsdale, winning numerous awards for sportswriting and photography from the Michigan Press Association and the Associated Press.
Reposted from the spring 2025 issue of Arete.