Despite windy conditions on October 14th and 15th, the Hillsdale golf team scored well during the final round of golf at the Doc Spragg Invitational in Findlay, Ohio, pushing them up to seventh on the leaderboard.
The team landed in fifth place at the Kyle Ryman Memorial tournament in Tiffin, Ohio the week before. Going into the Spragg Invitational, coach Matt Thompson said that the pool of competition was definitely fiercer, but they performed well despite a rocky start, and ended with three eagles for the team and a final score of 877.
According to the leaderboard, sophomore Ryan O’Rourke had a great round of golf on the final day of the Doc Spragg tournament. It also happened to be his birthday.
“It was nice to have an under par round, to have an eagle, and to come back finally on my birthday,” O’Rourke said.
He shot a 70, two under par, with an eagle and two birdies landing him in 11th place. O’Rourke said he has the helpful knack of consistently playing better in poorer weather, something he learned throughout his high school golfing career.
“Being from Michigan, the weather was super sketchy,” O’Rourke said. “For some reason I always played really well when the weather was the worst.”
O’Rourke said he saw a lot of improvement from last week’s tournament, the Kyle Ryman Memorial where he shot a solid 227 in 26th place, due to a small technical change in his putting game.
“I figured out a little technical thing with my putter that was not really working well the last two tournaments,”O’Rourke said.“I would stand over the putts today, and have confidence that this putt has a really good chance of actually going in.”
Freshman Jackson Piacsek earned his second top fifth place at Kyle Ryman, shooting 70, 73, 72. In the Doc Spragg Invitational, he battled through the unusual obstacle of breaking a club.
“I broke my four iron on the range before my first round. So that was a bit of a barrier, but I got over it quickly and battled through the cold and the rain and the wind,” Piacsek said.
For his first two tournaments in college golf, Piacsek said he was excited to start on such a strong high note with two top five finishes.
“It was pretty sweet,” said Piacesk. “I’m glad to be able to help the team in any way I can.”
The scores showed that sophomore Robert Thompson played excellent golf these past two tournaments. Starting off tied for first place with a great first round at Kyle Ryman Memorial tournament, he ended in fifth place after golfing 69, 72, 74. Landing in 11th place at Doc Spragg, he had an eagle and two birdies.
“When I made mistakes, I made a couple of birdies afterward, and kind of canceled out the bogeys,” Thompson said. “I was happy about it because it was a good field. Most of the top teams in the region were there.”
Coach Matt Thompson said he is hopeful about Rob Thompson’s prospects as a Hillsdale golfer.
“He’s playing really well and is close, I think, to winning his first college tournament,” coach Thompson said. “He has really continued to lead us.”
As the fall portion of Charger’s golf wraps up, the team members all said they felt confident about the quality golf they’ve been playing. Coach Thompson said he is happy with how the team managed to pull together some solid golf as the tournament progressed.
Next week, coach Thompson said the Chargers head to the Nemacolin tournament in Farmington, Pennsylvania. This tournament has a smaller pool of teams, but is set to be competitive with some of the top teams in the region participating. Coach Thompson said he feels optimistic about our chances after the performance at Doc Spragg.
“It’ll be a tough test; we’ll have to play well the entire tournament,” he said. “But the guys did a great job, I think that will serve us well going forward and be something to build on.”