ST.PAUL, Minn. — The Concordia St. Paul men's golf team gets the 2026-27 season underway on Monday, Sept. 14 when the host the CSP/MSU Fall Brawl at the Troy Burne Golf Course in Hudson, Wisconsin. The Golden Bears ended the 2025-26 season with a second place finish at the NSIC Championships, shooting a collective 887 (+23) to fall 20 strokes behind conference champion Winona State.
CSP will look to get back to the top of the NSIC and make a run at the NCAA Central Regional once again, while also replacing two key pieces in seniors Trey Timm and Chase Camilli from last year's squad.
"I'm excited about the men's team, we added a couple of really nice pieces in Tyler Gandrud and Brennan Weckworth, I think that can help fill some of the production we lost," Head Coach Peter Maki said. "As well as the development of some of those freshmen that performed really well last year. Very excited to see them kind of come together and work towards it."
Preseason Poll Results
The Golden Bears were tabbed to finish second in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll after receiving 91 points and three first place votes. Defending conference champion Winona State was picked to finish first in the poll with 97 points and eight first place votes.
Josh Esterley was selected as the Golden Bears Athlete to Watch heading into the 2026-27 season. Esterley finished 16th at the NSIC Championships and recorded a 74.1 scoring average last season, earning All-NSIC Second Team honors.
CSP/ MSU Fall Brawl Preview
The Golden Bears open up the 2026-27 season at the Troy Burne Golf Course on Monday, Sept. 14 when they host the CSP/MSU Fall Brawl with Minnesota State. The two round tournament will take place Monday and Tuesday. An 8 a.m. shotgun start is scheduled for Monday morning with a 9 a.m. shotgun start scheduled for round two on Tuesday.
Troy Burne Golf Club was rated as one of America's 100 Greatest Public Courses in Golf Digest from 2017-2020. The course features four par-fives, nine par-fours and five par-threes.
11 teams are set to compete at the Fall Brawl with Upper Iowa, Minot State, Madison College, Sioux Falls, CSP, Jamestown, Minnesota Crookston, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, UMary and Minnesota State slated to compete.
On the women's side 14 teams are slated to compete with CSP, Minnesota State, St. Kate's, Jamestown, Pittsburg State, Southwest Minnesota State, Wayne State, Upper Iowa, Wisconsin-Stout, St. Cloud State, Minot State, Minnesota Crookston, Winona State and UMary comprising the field.
The Golden Bears finished in second place at last year's Fall Brawl behind a 285 (-1) second round performance to shoot a collective 567 (-1) across both rounds, finishing 12 strokes behind first place Winona State.
Trey Timm shot a 66 (-5) in the final round for a two round score of 141 (-5) to finish in fifth place individually. Josh Esterley shot a 142 (E) across both rounds to end the tournament in ninth place.
Meet the Team: Returners
CSP returns six men's golfers from last season with a group of three seniors and three sophomores. The senior group is made up of Josh Esterley, Sam Rudolph and Camden O'Malley.
Esterley is coming off a junior season that saw him named All-NSIC Second Team with a 74.08 scoring average across 10 events. For the second straight season Esterley was named as the Golden Bears Athlete to Watch as well.
"Josh is a tireless worker, a team captain and extremely talented," Maki said. "I'm excited to see Josh compete and kind of show all that he's worked for, especially this summer. I know he's been working really hard, played a bunch of events over the summer and had some success."
During his junior season Esterley recorded three top 10 finishes and a 16th place finish at the NSIC Championships with a score of 225 (+9). Esterley will continue to be a key member of the team while also looking to regain some of his sophomore season form where he was named NSIC Newcomer of the Year and finished seventh at the NSIC Championships.
"He's got some pretty high standards, and I expect a lot out of him too," Maki said. "I'm excited to see him run with that."
In the mix with the returners are three sophomores as well, with Sean Leutner, Cason Boe and Cale Thompson each coming back for their second season at CSP.
"All those guys shot at least a round or two under par as freshmen and that's why I feel pretty good about them taking it that next level sophomore year," Maki said. "There is quite a bit of a learning curve in freshman year in college golf, but those guys all got a bunch of experience last year and I'm excited to see them take it off and running."
Carson Boe led the group with a 75.27 scoring average and one top 10 finish at the Maverick Desert Classic last season. The freshman finished in first place at the event with a two round score of 142 (-2), managing a 21st place finish at the NSIC Championships to cap off his freshman season.
Sean Leutner put together a 75.35 scoring average across 23 rounds in his first season, while managing a fifth place finish at the BSU Invite to open the season, with a score of 141 (-1).
Meet the Team: Newcomers
CSP adds three new members to the 2026-27 squad with two junior transfers in Tyler Gandrud and Jayden Manthei, while adding one incoming freshman to the mix in Brennan Weckwerth.
Gandrud comes to the Golden Bears after spending his first two seasons with the Winona State Warriors. In his sophomore season with the Warriors Gandrud competed in seven tournaments with three top five finishes and a season two round low of 138 (-6) at the Jewel Invitational.
"As soon as I saw him in the transfer portal, I reached out," Maki said. "I've known Tyler for a couple of years, actually recruited Tyler in high school and the fit worked, and I wanted him to help our program. Tyler's another guy who will work tirelessly, really spreads around the wokr ethic and shows guys how to get it done as well as being super talented. So I expect Tyler to come in and play on the roster right away."
Manthei joins the Golden Bears after spending two seasons at Iowa Lakes Community College. In his sophomore season Manthei tallied two top 10 finishes, including an individual win at the Buena Vista Fall Invitational with a second round score of 69 (-3).
"Jayden has a super good short game, unbelievable wedge game, he's right in the mix in qualifying right now," Maki said. "But very confident as we go throughout our process that he's going to jump in there."
Brennan Weckwerth is the lone incoming freshman this season, coming to CSP via Century High School in Rochester, Minnesota.
"I recruited Brennan really hard, he was kind of my top choice as we were going along in the recruiting process," Maki said. "Super happy to have him, he's a really steady player, very mature, he's going to play and have an impact on the team right away."
Meet the Coaching Staff
Two new members will join the CSP golf coaching staff with Daniel Gabrio coming on as the new assistant coach and Piper Hill moving from player to coach in a graduate assistant role.
Gabrio joins the staff as an assistant after playing four years of collegiate golf for the Bethel Royals at the Division III level.
"Daniel Gabrio played at Bethel, he also helped me in some of the junior golf camps I run," Maki said. "So Daniel knows how we do things, he is going to be a nice calm presence on the golf course."
Hill wrapped up her four year career with the Golden Bears last spring, finishing with a career scoring average of 79.95, the second best in program history while earning All-NSIC Second Team honors.
Schedule Preview
CSP will play a total of seven events during the fall slate, while hosting the first two at the CSP/MSU Fall Brawl, followed by the Jewel Invitational in Lake City. The final four tournaments of the fall season will see the Golden Bears head south for the Skip Wagnon Invitational, Newman Fall Invite and Washburn Invite, before capping the fall slate at the Tulsa Cup hosted by Rogers State.
"Reallt excited about the men's fall schedule with the strength of competition. These guys are going to get tested and they're going to be ready to go," Maki said. "So, iron sharpens iron in my eyes and putting together a strong schedule like that is a big piece of it."
Final Thoughts
"Our expectations here are regionals for sure, the goal for this year is kind of a funny one we cal it 't-shirt season', so the goal is to get a t-shirt at the conference championship and then snag another one by participating in regionals," Maki said. "So those are our goals, our standards and we are going to chase them as hard as we can."
