On a perfect Saturday for golfing, with clear skies and little wind, the Hillsdale golf team opened their season with a fourth place finish at the Kyle Ryman Shootout held at Mohawk Golf Club in Tiffin, Ohio.
The team shot a total score of 303 in the morning round and 314 in the afternoon, led by senior co-captain Chalberg with rounds of 73 and 74.
A stat the coaches like to keep is called “bounce-back,” which logs the number of times a player follows a double bogey with a par or better. With only nine total double bogeys from the Chargers in 180 holes played, the team was able to “bounce-back” seven times.
The Chargers were the only team out of seven in the tournament to have played at the Donald Ross designed Mohawk course prior to the shootout, so the team’s practice round on Friday was especially important. The course’s elevated greens are unforgiving to missed shots; however, Chalberg noted that “people were able to play decently well because we went over a good game plan before.”
Saturday was a long day of golf for the five members of the week’s travel squad: Chalberg and freshmen Joe Torres, Logan Kauffman, Ben Meola, and Steve Sartore. The day included 36 continuous holes – nine hours of play with no break.
A day that long requires a high level of physical and mental fitness, Harner said.
“Golf is very much a game of patience. You manage your future by managing your present. In a long day it’s hard not to think about what’s out there. Taking it one shot at a time definitely applies,” Harner said.
The tournament provided the coaching staff with a better idea of how to run a purposeful practice and gave the players their first taste of collegiate golf.
“Playing 36 [holes] was physically exhausting,” Sartore said, “but it was a great experience for being my first college match, and I look forward to the next.”
Coach Harner said he is proud of the way the freshman performed and especially noted Chalberg’s toughness and maturity, pointing to his final hole of the day – a 602 yard par 5. Chalberg missed the fairway and opted to place a different fairway into play, hit his shot over pine trees to the green and walked away with a birdie.
Chalberg said a personal highlight came on the 10th hole of the morning when he hit the flag pin for what would have been his first hole-in-one.
Perhaps that will come this weekend in Bay City, Michigan as the Chargers compete in the Al Watrous Memorial Collegiate Invitational.
