Thompson during Malone Fall Classic Sept. 8
Courtesy | Hillsdale Athletic Department
The Hillsdale men’s golf team finished seventh in the Midwest Regional Preview at the Rock Hollow Golf Club Sept. 29-30 shooting 891. Junior Robert Thompson placed first individually for his second invitational title of 2025.
“He is off to a great start and I’m really pleased with how he has been competing,” head coach Luke Kelly said.
Thompson shot a 71-69-70=210 for his second win of the season.
“I felt pretty confident coming into this tournament after the last two events I played in,” Thompson said. “Feels pretty good to get two wins this early in the season, hope to keep it rolling.”
Freshman John Cassiday also had a strong showing, shooting a 71-76-74=221 to place 13th overall. The team brought him to compete as an individual, which means although he placed, his performance did not contribute to the Chargers’ overall team score.
“I felt pretty confident going into this tournament,” Cassiday said. “I worked on my accuracy off the tee throughout the past week, which is what you need at Rock Hollow, which has very tight tee shots.”
Tiffin won the event, shooting 875 as a team.
“Tiffin and Findlay University are consistently good teams to watch out for,” Cassiday said. “Tiffin particularly played very well this week and won the tournament.”
Thompson said Tiffin’s win was surprising out of the 17 teams competing.
“Coming into the event, I thought University of Missouri St. Louis and Findlay were going to be the top teams to beat, but Tiffin ended up winning it,” Thompson said.
As a team, Thompson said the Chargers placed lower in the competition than expected.
“To be honest, it wasn’t our best performance as a team,” Thompson said. “I thought we were probably the third-best team there, and we placed seventh.”
Kelly agreed that the team should be able to place higher.
“The team could have performed better,” Kelly said. “We lacked execution and didn’t battle the way we can.”
Cassiday said the tournament does not reflect the team’s abilities.
“Besides Robert Thompson, everyone else played well below average,” Cassiday said. “This was the worst finish we have had this year so far, and we weren’t happy with how we played.”
Now the Chargers wait for the regional rankings which will come out in October. Even with the loss, Kelly said they expect to rank well, and his players agree.
“I think whenever the regional rankings come out, we’ll be ranked pretty well, around fifth in the region, maybe even better,” Thompson said.
Cassiday said he hopes to be ranked well and to keep improving as a team.
“I think we have played well enough in a couple of tournaments to be ranked one of the top teams in the region,” Cassiday said. “Our best golf is still to come, though.”
The team will compete next in the Doc Spragg Invitational at the Findlay Country Club in Findlay, Ohio, Oct. 13-14. Other regional teams will be competing such as the Tiffin Dragons and the Findlay Oilers, who are hosting the match.
