Wichita State’s Louis Cohen Boyer enters NCAA golf regional after two tournament victories

Wichita State senior golfer Louis Cohen Boyer won three major Missouri Valley Conference individual awards, almost without ever winning a college tournament.

He won the past two, however, results he sees as nothing more than a product of him doing the right things on and off the golf course. When a golfer piles up top-five finishes for four years, winning a tournament isn’t much of a change.

“I don’t think it’s a peak, it’s more like the way I’ve practiced seriously the past couple months,” Cohen Boyer said. “My game is pretty solid right now. I don’t think it’s anything special.”

Cohen Boyer, from Paris, leads WSU into an NCAA regional starting Thursday in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. He earned medalist honors at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships, two weeks after he shot three rounds under 70 to win the Hawkeye-Great River Entertainment Invitational in Iowa City, Iowa.

WSU is seeded 12th in the 13-team regional, one of six nationally. The low five teams and the low individual advance to the finals beginning May 29 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. If the Shockers are going to exceed expectations, it will likely be with Cohen Boyer and sophomore Grant Bennett in the lead. That duo led WSU in all seven spring tournaments, capped by Bennett finishing third at the MVC tournament, five strokes behind Cohen Boyer.

“When we’ve played well, it’s because of those two,” WSU coach Grier Jones said. “Both these guys are real capable. They control their own destiny. I’ve had players in the past that could play pretty good, but that was about as good as they could be.”

Jones opened up competition for the fifth spot after the MVC championships. Junior Alec Heinen, who finished tied for 26th, held his spot and will join Cohen Boyer, Bennett and freshmen Jacob Bishop and Conrad Walcher. Bishop and Walcher finished tied for fifth in the MVC tournament, their first top-10 finishes.

Cohen Boyer is wrapping up a career as one of the most-decorated Shockers. He won MVC Freshman of the Year honors in 2012 and MVC Golfer of the Year honors the past two seasons. He is the sixth MVC golfer to earn all-conference honors four times. He took a jump from talented young player to consistent top-10 finisher when Jones’ lessons about distractions and hard work took hold. Cohen Boyer organized other areas of his life, such as academics and social life, and helped his golf.

You can’t play golf when you have stuff on your mind,” he said. “If anything changed since my sophomore year, it’s the fact that when I show up to a tournament, I’m always ready.”

Jones sees a more focused student and athlete.

“His life has got some reason to it,” Jones said. “It’s a natural evolution. You get a little smarter, a little more mature, a little more control over your life.”

Bennett, from Prosper, Texas, recorded two top-10 finishes last spring. He added four this spring. As a sophomore, he can recover from a bad shot more quickly and stay positive.

“It’s not hitting shots I’m not capable of,” Bennett said. “My game is fairway, green and try to two-putt. The biggest improvement for me has been chipping and putting this semester. It’s kept me in a lot of rounds.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s Louis Cohen Boyer enters NCAA golf regional after two tournament victories."