Golf team poses with tournament trophy from last fall. Courtesy | Hillsdale Athletic Department
The Hillsdale men’s golf team finished fourth of 14 teams at the Kyle Ryman Memorial Invite as it pulled its lowest scores from its four underclassmen.
Freshman Oliver Marshall shot the Chargers’ best score of the tournament, carding a two-under-par 214. Sophomore Max Burns and freshmen Ryan O’Rourke and Robert Thompson finished within eight strokes of Marshall in the final standings. Junior Filippo Reale scored 235.
“The underclassmen were the ones that kind of carried the team on this one,” Burns said. “I think that’s good. We’re kind of setting a new culture on the team.”
The performance comes after the team won its first tournament last month to start the season.
“I played solid, so I can’t really complain,” Marshall said. “I think that’s kind of how the team was in general. The scores ended up okay, but it definitely wasn’t our best stuff.”
Marshall, who shot a 70-73-71, as well as Burns and Thompson shot all three rounds within a two stroke margin. Burns carded 72-73-72 as Thompson scored 75-73-74.
“I’d say score-wise we were consistent but the way I played I’d say was inconsistent,” Marshall said. “Pretty much the whole time, it was like a mishmash of different shots and different types of mistakes. I wouldn’t say it was like one thing that was really good or really bad — it was all just a little bit off.
O’Rourke performed with similar round-by-round consistency, shooting a 73-74-71, but said his long and short game were both inconsistent this tournament.
“It’s always different,” O’Rourke said. “One round I’ll be hitting my driver better and gain strokes with my driver, and the next round, I’ll hit a couple bad drives and I’ll lose strokes with my driver.”
In addition to the five-man lineup, Hillsdale brought five more golfers as individuals.
“It was nice to get everybody some competition rounds and just kind of have the whole team travel together and get a good feel for kind of where everybody’s at,” Thompson said.
The five-man lineup was composed of upperclassmen. Senior Will Verduzco shot for 229, while senior Carson Stohler and junior Charlie Belden tied for 58th in the tournament, shooting 230.
“They can grind it out and right the ship,” Thompson said. “They don’t get too down on themselves, and they stay pretty level-headed out there, which I think is a strong attribute.”
The Chargers will travel to Findlay, Ohio, to compete in the Doc Spragg Invitational Oct. 16-17.
“Findlay is not a super difficult course but it can certainly penalize you if you’re out of position and around the greens it can be pretty tough,” Thompson said. “We just have to be smart and really disciplined for 54 holes and we’ll be just fine.”
