The Hillsdale College Chargers took 13th overall at the St. Leo Invitational at Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club in Dade City, Florida over the weekend.
Senior George Roberts started the three-round tournament Sunday with a three-under par 69. From there, he shot two-over and three-over to finish the tournament two-over par, a tied-41 individual finish.
Senior Ryan Zetwick finished one better, securing the Charger’s low score. He shot two-over, two-under, and even par, finishing tied-38 and earning G-MAC Player of the Week recognition.
Freshman Gerry Jones, Jr. also finished out the tournament strong. On Tuesday finished the day at four-under par 68, the lowest round for the Chargers and ended the tournament four-over, tied for 50 overall.
“Everything in my game just kind of clicked,” Jones, Jr. said. “I went back to old swing thoughts I had in the fall season. Some minor changes made the biggest difference and everything followed suit. I was hitting the fairway more often, giving myself more birdie opportunities, and my putter was dialed in which really helped with the birdie opportunities.”
Jones scored eight birdies in the last round, which he said he didn’t even know before signing his scorecard.
“I didn’t even realize I had that many birdies until the end of the round. Frankly, I didn’t quite realize I was four under until I made birdie on the last hole. I wasn’t even thinking about my score which is why I think I played so well.”
The Chargers combined to score 8-over par. Lynn University won the event, shooting 31-under, and host St. Leo took second place with a score of 26-under.
As a team, the Chargers were able to take advantage of Lake Jovita’s par three holes. They averaged one-under par, or a 2.98 scoring average, which led the field and bested Lynn by two strokes on average.
“It’s a demonstration of how good we’re hitting it right now,” Roberts said. “The par threes are all about hitting it close in that first shot. We were doing that. We were rolling in birdies, left, right, and center.”
But the story flipped on par fours and fives, where they found themselves lower in the field.
“The par fives we just didn’t take advantage of,” Roberts said. “We did okay, but we need to be taking full advantage of the par fives because that’s where you’re going to get most of your under-par rounds from.”
For the first time the Chargers played a tournament where they didn’t get paired up with the other teams. All five players were in the same pairing throughout the tournament, allowing them to know exactly how one another were doing in real time. Roberts said he liked how it made the competition feel more like a team effort than an individual one.
“The first round when we were playing pretty well and making a lot of birdies, we’d be behind each other cheering ourselves on and it really created a great team dynamic,” Roberts said. “It was great at the highs but it did hurt us a little bit during the lows. But it was a great experience and we managed to keep each other in high spirits.”