Following a day one struggle, the BG men’s golf team bettered their score by 14 shots on the second day at the Flyer Invitational, rallying to a third place finish at the fall season’s next-to-last event.
With the finish, the team has yet to end a tournament outside the top-ten this season.
Leading the way for the second straight week was Drew Preston. The sophomore rebounded from an opening round 76 to shoot 73 in round two and finish in a tie for fifth at plus-seven, seven shots behind Justin Lower of Malone, who walked away on top with an even-par total of 142. Preston’s second round was on track to be something really special – through twelve holes he was three-under for the round and in the thick of contention – but was derailed with a bogey-double bogey finish.
‘For a while in the second round, I was playing some of my best golf in a long time,’ said Preston, ‘To have it fall apart a little bit down the stretch is disappointing.’
Nevertheless, it was a fine showing on a golf course that inflicted misery on much of the 98-man field over two days. The main culprit was NCR Country Club’s wickedly undulating greens that resulted in many-a-three putt. There were even a few four putts, and an almost unheard of five putt.
‘Those were by far the most intimidating set of greens we’ve seen in a long, long time,’ said coach Garry Winger. ‘You could absolutely not leave yourself with a downhill putt and expect to get it close or make it.’
‘On a lot of holes, I had ten-footers for birdie and I was just hoping to walk away with a par,’ Preston said, ‘That part was not much fun at all.’
The greens seemed to befuddle the entire Falcon team on Monday, which was reflected in their scores. The low man on day one was Preston at 76, Matt Schneider and Wes Gates turned in matching 77s, and Parker Hewit and John Powers came in with scores of 79 and 80 respectively.
The only saving grace was that nearly everyone else had similar or worse difficulty, which meant that the Falcons score of 309 left them in sixth-place, eleven shots back of first-round leader Toledo, and in reasonable position to make a move.
‘We certainly did not play well at all on the first day,’ Winger said. ‘We were caught off-guard by the flag locations, and on these greens your iron play has to be spot-on. If you are off by a fraction, the ball could wind up on the wrong side of the green and you’d be in trouble.’
‘I certainly was not as prepared as I could have been for the difficulty of the greens on Monday,’ Preston said, ‘It definitely took me a while to adjust.’
The whole team seemed to adjust nicely on day two. There was Preston’s 73, which could have easily been lower. Schneider and Gates matched numbers again, this time with 74s, which earned them joint-16th, along with six others, at plus-nine for the tournament. Powers and Hewit also improved on their round one totals. Powers improved six shots to shoot 74 to finish tied for 29th, while Hewit followed up his 79 with a 78 and wound up tied for 50th. In the end, BG wound up eight shots behind eventual winner Ball St. and three shot behind second-place Toledo.
‘Overall, I’m very happy with how our guys fought back on that second day on a very tough setup,’ Winger said, ‘Our major strength so far this year has definitely been our consistency; we’ve had at least 2-3 guys step up every week.’
With Dayton now behind them, the Falcons will have a week off to think about sunshine and palm trees before flying down to Fort Meyers, Fla., to close out the fall season at the Renaissance Invitational.
‘I can speak for everybody when I say we are excited to get down there and enjoy some 80-degree weather for a few days,’ Winger said.’