PENFIELD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher Cardinals men’s golf team got in a practice round at Midvale Country Club on Thursday ahead of Tuesday’s Division III NCAA Championship.

It’s the third straight year the Cardinals have reached the promised land and this time they’ll be put to the test at Boulder Creek Golf Club outside of Las Vegas. The four day event will test a group of golfers that haven’t faced the challenges a west coast course will present.

“I myself haven’t golfed out west before. I talked to Ben, he hasn’t either. It’s gonna take some getting used to. Much warmer out there. Gonna have to get used to hitting it longer,” said junior RJ Juodaitis.

“It’s gonna be interesting to see how the ball reacts on essentially rock hard ground and that elevation, but I think we’re ready,” said sophomore Benjamin Fox.

Cardinal red has been a fixture in the D-III NCAAs for decades. The program has qualified 15 times since head coach Bob Simms took over in 2000. This current group has strung together three straight appearances and hope the third time can truly be the charm.

“I think we all understand what the goal is. We’ve all won before so we all know how to get to that point,” said Fox.

“The experience in tough situations, pressure situations. We’ve been there before, we know how to handle it, so it’s just about doing it,” said Juodaitis.

Winning against the best of the best in the D-III men’s golf landscape will require some outstanding play, but don’t think the Cardinals are underdogs by any stretch. They won the St. Lawrence Invitational in September, with Juodaitis leading the field at 2-under par for the tournament. The Cardinals won the event by 16 strokes.

To reach the NCAA Championship, St. John Fisher had to win the Empire 8. They accomplished that by a 66-stroke margin over second place SUNY Oswego. Four Cardinals finished in the top five on the final round leaderboard, and the confidence from winning is carrying over ahead of next tournament.

“I know we can do well there. We can make the cut. We can have a chance to win, so I’m really looking forward to it,” said Juodaitis.

“If you know you can do something, you’ve done it before. Obviously this is a much bigger stage than we’ve ever won on before, but we’re ready,” said Fox.

Tuesday, we’ll get our answer, but after hearing that, you might not want to bet against Cardinal red in Vegas.