By Steve CarpenterBlue Dragon Sports Information Director
The Hutchinson Community College men's golf team starts the fall portion of the 2026-27 season on Monday with the No. 1 preseason ranking in NJCAA Division I.
The Blue Dragons will be part of a 10-team field at the Iowa Western Bent Tree Intercollegiate at Bent Tree Golf Course in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Rounds 1 and 2 will be played on Monday with the final round on Tuesday morning. Tee times each day are 9 a.m. shotgun starts.
Starting his 26th season as Blue Dragon head coach, Chris Young has guided the Blue Dragons through their best five-year stretch in program history with five-straight NJCAA Tournament Top 10 finishes, including national championships in 2021 and 2022. Last season, the Blue Dragons finished fourth with a pair of NJCAA All-Americans leading the way.
As the new season begins on Monday, the Blue Dragons returns six players from last season's KJCCC and Region 6 championship team. The Dragons add six promising freshmen to the mix.
"I am excited to get started and see where this goes," Young said. "There is lots of young talent to go with what we have coming back. I feel confident that we will have a chance come May."
The Bushnell/GolfWeek NJCAA Division I preseason rankings have the Blue Dragons, with three first-place votes at No. 1 with 75 points. Odessa is second with 71, followed by Indian Hills with 66 points, McLennan with 62 points and Weatherford with 52 points.
Young has a strong nucleus to build on from last season with returning All-Americans Grant Hatzenbuehler and Hugo Duquaine.
Hatzenbuehler, a sophomore from Andover, placed third at the national tournament last May to earn first-team NJCAA All-America honors. He shot 288 in the national tournament last year. Overall, Hatzenbuehler had five Top 10 tournament finishes – his best finish was the national tournament – and his scoring average was 71.67. Hatzenbuehler was both all-conference and all-Region 6.
Duquaine, a sophomore from Belgium, got off to a slow start as a freshman, but turned things around with four-straight Top 10 finishes to close the season. Duquaine was fourth in the KJCCC Championship, won the Region 6 Championship, was fifth in the Plains District Tournament and seventh at the NJCAA Tournament. Duquaine was a second-team NJCAA All-American as well as all-conference and all-region. He averaged 71.94 last season.
"Both Grant and Hugo have worked so hard this summer on their games and you can tell in practice," Young said.
Also returning for the Blue Dragons are sophomores Joe Austin, Matt Vearncombe, Lincoln Barnes and Hudson Sauder.
Austin, Vearnecombe and Sauder were all all-KJCCC last season.
Two freshmen will be in the starting line-up for the Bent Tree Intercollegiate in Charlie Rusbridge and Harry Richmond. Freshmen Tom Chapman and Grant Labuschagne will be individual players for the first tournament of the season.
Freshmen Lewis Antell and Drew DeMeyer round out the roster.
With the group of players we have, this season could be a lot of fun," Young said.