The last tournament of the fall for BG men’s golf can be best summed up with one statement – great weather, lousy golf.
In conditions that could not have been any more ideal, the Falcons failed to take advantage, struggling to a 12th place finish out of 12 teams at the Renaissance Invitational.
‘We just made way too many big numbers to contend,’ said coach Garry Winger. ‘We made the third most birdies out of any team in the field, but when you cancel those out with a bunch of mistakes, then you won’t go very far.’
The teams at the top of the leader board had a field day with Renaissance Country Club’s wide, forgiving fairways, which were made even more forgiving by a total absence of wind. In all, there were 671 birdies and 13 eagles (including one by BG’s John Powers) made over three rounds. Two players fired rounds of 64, four others shot 65.
At the conclusion of play it was Indiana and Penn State sitting 1-2 atop the leader board in both the team and individual competitions. The Hoosiers finished an impressive 32-under-par, two strokes better than the Nittany Lions, while IU senior Alex Martin’s total of 16-under was enough to edge Kevin Foley of Penn State, also by two shots.
‘For most teams, the scoring this week was extremely low,’ Winger said. ‘Unfortunately, most of our guys, at this stage of their careers, don’t posses the type of mindset that is needed to go really low in a round consistently. That’s something we need to keep getting better at.’
The low man for the Falcons was Parker Hewit, who finished with a career best total of three-under-par 213 en route to an 18th place finish, which is his highest this season.
‘I’m very pleased overall with the way I played this week,’ Hewit said. ‘The biggest thing for me was that I didn’t make very many big numbers all week. I just stayed consistent throughout the tournament and got a few putts to drop.’
After starting out with an opening round 74 – in which he double bogeyed the very first hole – Hewit brought himself back with a second round 69, which was the only round in the 60’s shot by a Falcon. His round could have been better if not for a rough patch on the back nine.
After reaching five-under for the round at one point, Hewit double-bogeyed the 15th from only 90 yards out, which was followed by a bogey at 16. Hewit righted himself, however, with a 20-foot birdie at 18 to end up with 69.
‘I was happy that Parker was able to come back like that with a birdie at the end,’ Winger said. ‘He’s had some trouble in the past with finishing off good rounds. There is no way you can simulate being four or five-under par out on the golf course, it is something you have to experience. Hopefully Parker is beginning to get more comfortable in that situation.’
‘That last birdie was big for me after the mistakes I made,’ Hewit said. ‘It felt a lot better to shoot 69 than 70, that’s for sure.’
The other Falcons were not so fortunate. John Powers finished tied for 39th at plus-four, Drew Preston tied for 41st at plus-six, while Matt Schneider and Wes Gates each failed to break 75, on their way to turning in scores of plus-ten and plus-eleven, respectively.
With the fall schedule behind them, the Falcons will hit the books for the next month as they attempt to make up for lost time in the classroom.
‘Our guys have missed a bunch of class due to tournaments, so academics are the most important thing right now,’ Winger said. ‘The guys will continue to practice on their own, but we won’t meet again as a team until January.’
