In the Hillsdale College golf team’s last tournament of the year, the team placed ninth at the Motor City Invitational, which was held at TPC Michigan in Dearborn on Sunday and Monday.
The team shot 628, 25 strokes behind first place finisher Wayne State University.
Junior Joel Pietila put together two solid rounds last weekend and finished in fourth place as an individual. He shot 75-73, for a two-day score of 148. He fell only 3 strokes out of first place.
Pietila has been the team’s leader this fall season and had the team’s lowest score in four-of-five tournaments. In each of those four tournaments, he placed in the top six.
“Joel is consistent because he has a very level head and is very patient,” head coach Nathan Gilchrist said. “Physically, he hits it at or near his targets all of the time. When he doesn’t, he has such a great short game that he saves par and moves on to the next hole.”
Tough conditions met players on the first day of the Motor City Invitational.
“The weather was very difficult. 20 mph winds all day. Rain on and off. Temperature was great — 72 degrees,” Gilchrist said. “However, the team struggled with being patient and embracing the very difficult elements.”
Pietila stayed focused, despite the elements, finishing only three strokes over par.
“The biggest thing I was able to do during the first day was limit big mistakes,” he said. “The wind was howling and it was very easy to lose balls, but I was able to keep my ball in play and keep double bogies off the card.”
Sophomore Ryan Zetwick said the weather was “hard to battle through mentally.”
“Joel did a great job keeping his head in it and finishing the round, but the rest of us struggled and had a disappointing day.”
Zetwick recovered from a first round of 85 with an impressive second round in which he led the team with a 71.
“I made a lot of putts and kept my head in it the whole round and was able to post a score that helped out the team,” Zetwick said.
Juniors Henry Hitt and Liam Purslowe, and senior Logan Kauffman rounded out the team’s roster for the tournament. Hitt shot 177, Purslowe shot 157, and Kauffman finished at 168.
The team had four top-five finishes on the season: second place at the Watrous Intercollegiate, third place at the Kyle Ryman Memorial Invitational, fourth place at the G-MAC Fall Invitational, and fifth place at the Midwest Regional.
“We’ve improved a lot from last year. As a team we have learned a lot and we’ve become better at focusing on each shot and not worrying about what our score is,” Zetwick said. “We got off to a great start and we’re in a good position for the spring to have some success.”
Gilchrist said the team feels partially successful.
“The team was ranked 54th in the nation out of 205 teams heading into the Motor City Invite. They were ranked as high as 4th in the Midwest Region out of 32 teams heading to the Motor City Invitational,” he said. “We are pleased with the trajectory of the team…the players are ready to win, they had chances to win this fall but just didn’t finish it off in the end. They are a little disappointed they didn’t get a victory this fall. We will reset, get focused, and work hard this offseason in preparation for the spring championship season.”
