In the world of sports, improving throughout the season is the point of playing.
That is why the Bowling Green golf team embodied what sports is in their play at the Marshall Invitational this past weekend.
The Falcons finished seventh in the 15 team tournament. This came after they finished 11th out of 12 teams in the Pinehurst Invitational a week and a half ago and 12th out of 13 teams at the Irish Spring Tournament over spring break.
This appears to be a step in the right direction for BG.
“I hope so,” BG head coach Garry Winger said. “We’ve changed things up the past couple weeks and we shot a good score.”
That score was their best of the spring as BG shot an 876. Their two previous tournaments they’ve shot 951 and 947.
Part of that was the changes the Falcons made and part of it was the great weather they saw.
“The weather was good down there so the scores were good,” Winger said. “The greens were soft and that is going to produce lower scores.”
Regardless of the weather, junior Chris Leake has never played better than he did on the second day. He shot a career-best 67 en route to shooting a 54-hole score of 212 while finishing 12th. He was joined by classmate Heath Ziglar, who shot a score of 215, good for a tie in 17th place.
“Chris and Heath should have been our two best players going down there,” Winger said. “And they proved that they should be the best.”
Even more important for the Falcons was their finish among Mid-American Conference opponents. BG beat Eastern Michigan by a shot and also managed to best Marshall, Northern Illinois and Miami.
Out of eight MAC teams, the Falcons finished with the fourth best score.
“We always want to be higher up,” Winger said. “But we got a chance to beat some teams we haven’t beat this year.”
With the MAC championships just three and a half weeks away, the golfers know they have to hit the links harder than ever. In order to compete for the title, they will have to make improvements like this every week.
“As far as golf is concerned, you always need a lot of confidence to play,” Winger said. “It’s important that we continue to do well.”
The Falcons next challenge will come this weekend when the travel to Akron to take part in the First Energy Intercollegiate.
