Those who closely follow golf know that the players who win the most are those who continually put themselves in contention week after week.
The same player is highly unlikely to win every week, but the one who gives himself the most opportunities is usually the one able to string together the most sustained success. The BG men’s golf team certainly gave themselves an opportunity to win the Bearcat Invitational in Hebron, Ky. This week – they were in second place going into the final round – but the Falcons could not quite follow through, shooting a 313 in cold blustery conditions on Tuesday to finish 6th out of 17 teams.
Despite the fact that his bunch could not take advantage of their opportunity, coach Garry Winger is pleased that the team gave themselves a shot and is fully aware that if they keep doing so, then good things will surely continue to happen.
‘The whole key to tournament golf is just to keep giving yourself a chance to win coming down the stretch,’ said Winger. ‘We’ve been able to do that now for three out of four weeks so far and have come away with two victories, so hopefully we just keep at it.’
The Falcons entered the final round trailing Ball State by two shots and one ahead of third-place Miami (OH). On day one, they received superb play from Drew Preston, who put together rounds of 74-69 and Parker Hewit, who shot 72-75.
However, the entire team would succumb to the difficult course setup and equally difficult weather conditions on Tuesday. Preston would shoot 77 and finish 5th. Matt Schneider could not get anything going en route to a 75 and a 25th place finish.
Hewit would balloon to an 84 and fall from a tie for 8th, back to a tie for 42nd. He would be joined in the 80s by John Powers (80) and Wes Gates (81). Miami would go on to a four-shot win over Ball State.
‘Bad rounds will always happen in golf,’ Winger said. ‘And unfortunately, they happened to all five of our guys on Tuesday.’ The final round was doubly disappointing for Preston, whose 77 not only contributed to the team’s overall slide, but also cost him a chance to win the individual competition.
Preston was one of only two players to shoot in the 60’s on Monday, firing a second round 69 to vault himself into a tie for the lead with Nathan Sutherland of Miami heading into Tuesday. However, things went south for the BG sophomore almost immediately in the final round. Through seven holes, he was already five over for the round and effectively out of the running. A nice birdie stretch on the back nine was not nearly enough to put the heat on Sutherland, who shot a spectacular – given the conditions – 67 to pull away from the field by seven shots.
‘I was disappointed with the way I played today,’ said Preston. I got off to a terrible start, played a little better on the back nine, but gave much of it back with a double-bogey at 18. It just wasn’t a great day overall.’
Nevertheless, it is Preston’s second top-5 finish this season and the third time he has placed in the top-15. After a rocky freshman season, he appears to be finding his place.
‘Even though I can still get a lot better, I’m overall pretty happy with the way I am playing right now,’ Preston said. ‘It was nice to be in contention so soon again after winning my first tournament.’
As for the team as a whole, Winger hopes they can parlay their fine play thus far into a strong finish to the fall season, which has only two events left.
‘I’m happy with the way my guys are playing right now,’ Winger said. ‘We are going to try and catch up on some practice the next few days and be ready to head down to Dayton next week.”