Heath Trabue helped get the Otterbein men’s golf program back among the nation’s best by the end of his playing career in 2009. Otterbein finished sixth at the NCAA Championships during his freshman year in 2006, although Trabue did not compete at the event.

The Cards narrowly missed the NCAA’s in 2007 and 2008, but Trabue and classmate Mike Ruffing helped get Otterbein back in 2009 as seniors. It started with an emotional 13-stroke victory over Mount Union in the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships, where Trabue finished alone in third.

Otterbein rode the momentum to a 13th-place finish out of 39 teams at the NCAA Championships in Port St. Lucie, Fla., coming in 12 strokes behind the winning school. Trabue led the way again for Otterbein, finishing with a nine-over par 297 and tying for 22nd individually to capture third-team All-American honors. Heath matched the best nine-hole score of any player in the field that week, firing a four-under 32 on the front nine during second-round action.

Heath posted five top-5 finishes during his senior season, including a runner-up finish at the OAC Fall Invitational. He played 30 rounds as a senior, shooting higher than 79 just four times but never above 81. He improved his stroke average from 76.9 as a freshman to 75.5 during his final season as a Cardinal.