Men’s head golf coach John Cleary knows his sport is in a unique situation.

Because of the sport’s nature, golfers talk in play much more than any other sporting event. The Cole Hall shooting will come up during play when the men’s golf team competes in the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate in Hilton Head Island, S.C., today.

“There’s lots of downtime and [the golfers] get asked questions when competing,” Cleary said. “It’s pretty natural to talk about school or whatever. It will be appropriate. They will be sensitive to it.”

The men’s golf team is the first NIU sports team to start competition after the week-long break. Cleary said he hasn’t put much thought into what that meant because he sees it as something that just happened because of circumstance.

“It’s not something I really thought about,” Cleary said. “It’s going to be different. That’s just the way things worked out.”

Cleary knows each of his players will deal with the situation differently. Some will want to talk with opponents, others won’t. Cleary said South Carolina’s head golf coach has contacted him to see if he can help.

But Cleary thinks that getting back to golf will help his team.

“Any time you get a chance to do what you do best in routine, it’s a good thing,” Cleary said.

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