Hillsdale golf started their spring season strong March 24 and 25, finishing 7th overall out of 18 teams at the University of Findlay Spring Invite in Richmond, Kentucky.
With a team score of 4-over-par, the players battled through harsh winds to play consistently at Boone’s Trace National Golf Club during the second round on Monday.
Junior Maxwell Burns and sophomore Ryan O’Rourke each finished with a score of 1-over-par, tying them in 24th place out of one hundred golfers. O’Rourke was at the top of the leaderboard halfway through Monday before the wind toughened the playing field.
“My range session was perfect— one of the best I’ve ever had,” O’Rourke said. “I started out really hot on the first round with 5-under out of seven holes. It was a little disappointing as I then kept shooting well but didn’t make many putts.”
Burns said that the consistency the team was showing in their playing is a testament to the work they’ve been putting in and is a promising start for the upcoming rest of the season.
“I think this year, we’ve built a culture where it’s a little more serious, and we’re a little more gritty,” Burns said. “So we expect more out of each other than we have in the past. I think it’s nothing but positive!”
The week got off to a different start than expected due to the injury of sophomore Oliver Marshall which took him off the roster for the tournament, but the team was able to regroup from that and play excellent golf that will set a good tone for the rest of the spring season according to head coach Matthew Thompson.
“That first tournament in the spring is a good chance to see how we’ve been practicing, so I was excited to see how the guys would do,” Thompson said. “They did great, especially since they played in some super windy conditions. They kept their wits about them, they battled through some adversity, and they did a really, really good job.”
The team has had the advantage of practicing at the brand new Hillsdale golf facility prior to this tournament.
“It’s allowed us to have a lot more practice leading up to the tournament compared to last year,” O’Rourke said. “We’re much closer to around three hours a day of practice which had me feeling a lot better about my game going in.”
Last year at this tournament, Hillsdale landed in 10th place. The team scores and the individual scores were better than in past years and showed the progress of the team playing with more grit, according to Burns.
“As far as history goes, if you finish with 4-over, that’s pretty dang good!” Burns said.
Next weekend, the team is traveling to the Music City Invitational in Nashville, Tennessee. The Findlay tournament this week included a strong pool of regional teams while the upcoming Nashville tournament will include some new competition that will make for an exciting tournament, according to coach Thompson.
“One shot per guy per round goes a long way,” coach Thompson said. “So we’re just going to keep working on the things that we’ve been working on. We’ll rest for a day and then regroup quickly and get that intensity back up by the end of the week.”
