Photo by Sam Thiel Spencer Ehlers signs his National Letter of Intent to play golf at Augustana University as his family looks on on Friday morning.

MARSHALL – While the sub-zero temperatures continued to stay, Spencer Ehlers was ready to turn his focus to spring and his future.

The Marshall senior signed his National Letter of Intent to play golf at Augustana University on Friday morning, surrounded by his family, friends and teammates.

Ehlers said it’s exciting to finally have this day come and has been waiting for the next chapter to get started.

“It’s an exciting time for me and my family and friends,” Ehlers said. “It’s a day that we’ve been waiting for and this is just the next step and hopefully a lot more to come.”

The past few years, Ehlers has helped lead the way for the Tigers on the course. Last season, he won in a playoff in the final round of the section tournament to qualify as an individual for the Class AA meet, where he placed 53rd.

Meanwhile, Augustana is preparing for its spring season beginning on March 8. The Vikings placed 15th at the Central Missouri Invite, 11th at the Junior Watkins Invite, second at their home invite and 16th at the Missouri Western State Invite this past fall.

Ehlers said the Augustana program just felt like the right fit and where he wanted to spend the next four years of his career.

“I think just talking to my family and when I went on the visit there it just felt right and the coach is really nice, so a lot of those factors played into it,” Ehlers said.

Ehlers said his family, teammates and coaches have had a big impact on him during his time at Marshall and he’s thankful for what they’ve done for him both on and off the course.

“First off, I’d like to thank my family because they’ve been there through all of this. Golf is something that my family has always been close with and it’s brought us even closer,” Ehlers said. “I also want to thank my friends, teammates and coaches because growing up in a community like Marshall we’re all really lucky because there are a lot of great people here. Without them, I don’t know where I’d be today.”

Before he hits the links for the Vikings next year, Ehlers still has one season with the Tiger golf team. He said he’s looking forward to playing with a group with even more experience than the past couple of years as they gear towards a trip to the state tournament.

“The past couple of years we’ve had a younger team, so it’ll be good because we’ll all be more experienced this year coming in as one of the top teams in the section,” Ehlers said. “I think that experience is going to play a big part in our success this year and just on those cold, rainy spring days when nobody wants to be out there practicing, we’re all still pushing each other because we all know the end goal is to take a trip to Jordan in June.”