The men’s golf team ended their fall season with a sixth place finish at the Lenoir-Rhyne Invitational in Hickory, North Carolina, edging out the Findlay Oilers by one spot.
“It was pretty much the same story as the rest of the fall,” head coach Matt Thompson said. “There were some good individual performances. It felt like, besides that first tournament of the year, everyone played good at different times and we just couldn’t really put it all together.”
The Chargers carded a 297-296-304=897, with senior Darragh Monaghan placing 11th and senior Gerry Jones Jr. tying for 12th with six other golfers. Monaghan finished five strokes over par and Jones shot six over par.
Freshman Maxwell Burns put up a 74-75-74=223, tying for 17th place. Thompson said he has been impressed with Burns’ first season on the team.
“We’ve been really happy with what he brings to the team,” Thompson said. “He’ll continue to get better as he settles into college golf. It was cool to see him end the season on a high note and take that momentum into the offseason.”
Burns said he was pleased with how he performed, despite a rough ending. On his second to last hole of the third round, Burns shot a triple bogey, which is a score of three strokes over the par rating of an individual hole.
“I feel like I played pretty good,” Burns said. “I kind of ended on a sore note because I triple-bogeyed on my 17th hole due to some unfortunate circumstances. But to shoot two over par on my third round and end with a triple bogey on my last hole, I had to have been playing pretty good golf.”
Burns was not the only one who ran into trouble late in the tournament. The team struggled to perform well on the final day of competition.
“I feel like the guys are more and more disappointed in how they played the final day,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to keep working on closing out some of those events and figure out what we need to do to finish strong.”
Burns said he was somewhat satisfied with his first fall season of collegiate golf.
“I’m pretty happy with it,” Burns said. “I got to play in every tournament, which is definitely a bit of an accomplishment. College golf is definitely a step up. I have some work to do over the offseason to get where I want to be, but I can’t be too mad at it given I’ve gotten some experience under my belt and I have some things to take away.”
The Chargers will return to competition Feb. 20, 2023, traveling to Dade City, Florida for the Saint Leo Invitational. When they return from Florida, the team will have four more tournaments before the G-MAC championships in mid-April.
The team will be working in the offseason to improve on their weaknesses.
“I think this team has a high ceiling,” Thompson said. “They have a lot of positives to look back on. We just need to get more consistent and clean up some things when we get back at it this spring.”
