The Hillsdale men’s golf team finished in fourth place at the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championship in Florence, Indiana, at the Belterra Resort course this past Monday and Tuesday with a team score of 905. 

With a chance to finish in top two and move on to match play, the team was disappointed to place fourth out of eleven teams. 

“The highlight was after the first day when I checked the leaderboard and we were in third place,  just a couple shots back from second,” Thompson said. “Because the top two make match play.”

The team is hopeful to qualify for the upcoming regionals tournament after their performance at this event, according to head oach Matt Thompson. 

“We’re battling for a regional spot,” Thompson said. “We were 10th in the region going into the tournament, and only the top 10 make regionals. So we’re about as close as you can get.”

However, Hillsdale managed to beat the No. 9 seed Ashland University by 12 strokes, adding to their promising chance at regionals later in May. 

Sophomores Robert Thompson and Ryan O’Rourke both finished in sixth place at the G-MAC Championship with scores of 222. Thompson also landed in the top 10 at this tournament last year giving him a perfect streak for his college career of G-MAC Championship tournaments. Despite ending in 6th place, both O’Rourke and Thompson hit eagles on the 18th hole throughout the tournament, helping their team to place. 

“I just go play and hope it goes well,” Thompson said. “I was pretty happy with how it went this week. I liked hole 18: the view was great from the tee box, and Ryan and I had eagles there.”

The windy conditions made it even trickier to shoot at this course, according to Thompson. This tournament was the first time the team had ever played at the Belterra Resort course. 

“This course was somewhat tight off the tee, and it got really windy the first day,” said Thompson. “When playing in the wind, you’ve got to hit punch shots and stingers instead of trying to swing softer with a longer club, which is what I had been doing.”

According to coach Thompson, the team played well but just wasn’t able to bring in enough birdies and pars to place as well as they’d hoped.

“The course was playing pretty tough,” O’Rourke said. “Lots of wind the first day made birdies and even pars difficult. I drove the ball very well off the tee, so I had lots of opportunities to make birdies. I didn’t do the best job converting those opportunities into birdies though.”

The team placed fairly well all year and is excited for the potential of regionals and for next fall’s season according to Coach Thompson. 

“We’re in a good spot going forward, getting healthy for next year,” Thompson said. “We have a young team, so we’ll continue to put the work in and hopefully make a run out of next year.”