The Charger golf team finished up their spring break at a golf course by the beach. They participated in Tiffin University’s Battle at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Teams from all across the country came to compete in the two day tournament at TPC Myrtle Beach. The Chargers took 10th out of 16 teams. Fellow GLIAC schools Tiffin, Northern Michigan and Northwood were also present at the tournament. Other universities hailed from Virginia, Indianapolis and the Myrtle Beach area.
This tournament was the first tournament of the spring season for the golf team. It was also the first time that the Chargers had the opportunity to play outdoors.
“Frankly we were all disappointed,” said freshman Steve Sartore. “It’s tough because we had the stimulator which is a blessing but also it’s really good at helping out mechanical problems but the thing with hitting into a net or screen is that you really lose the whole field part of the game. That was definitely evident in the way we played. Our field took a really long time to come together. There are just some things that you simply can’t stimulate and that showed.”
The course difficulty didn’t help the team’s performance either.
“[TPC Myrtle Beach is] one of three courses in South Carolina to be rated at five stars, and is one of the harder courses I’ve played,” senior Matt Chalberg said.
The combination of course difficulty and the fact that it was the first tournament of the semester contributed to the team’s overall performance.
“[We were] not nearly at our best,” freshman John Duffy said. “It was our first week back outside. We had been hitting balls inside all winter and people were had been going through a lot of swing changes and working on a lot of stuff. That was our first time out competing again so it wasn’t even close to our best possible performance.”
The weather, Sartore noted, didn’t help their game the second day either.
“The first day was very tolerable weather wise,” he said. “It was overcast the entire day but it was perfect air temperature, mid 70s. It was humid but nothing too bad. The second day was much more difficult. Playing conditions were really windy and then rain. It rained for about 12 holes then it actually cleared up for a little bit. The second day had much less favorable weather conditions than the first day.”
Even though the team didn’t play as well as they’d hoped, there were some highlights to the weekend. Freshman Joe Torres led the Chargers in the scores from the weekend.
“He [Torres] had a couple of solid rounds and finished high among the 90 competitors with scores of 79 and 76,” Chalberg said.
The team is looking forward to their next tournament.
“In some of the practices that we’ve been doing so far in the time since the tournament, you can just tell that being outside has already improved our game a ton. Our next tournament will be a much different showing,” Sartore said. “It takes time to shake the rust off and that can be said for any sport.”
