The men’s golf team got their season underway this week in the John Piper Intercollegiate Tournament. The tournament was held at Stone Ridge Golf Course in Bowling Green, and is the only tournament the Falcons will host this season. The Falcons finished fifth in the twelve team, fifty-four hole tournament.
Sophomore Craig Pickerel had no problem getting right back into the swing of things and showed no sign of rust from the off season. Pickerel led the Falcons’ charge, shooting a combined 215, which was good enough to place him fifth for the tournament. The Piper Tournament was filled with several major achievments for Pickerel. His fifth place finish and final round of 69 were career bests, and his combined three round score was also his top showing to date.
Following not too far behind Pickerel were sophomore Austin Chase, senior Eric Lauterbach, and freshmen Chris Leake and Bud Ziglar. Although the Falcons finished fifth for the tournament, they were able to provide some much needed experience to the young freshmen.
“The fifth place finish is not as good as we hoped, but it was good for the freshmen to get used to college tournaments and get some much needed experience,” said sophomore Austin Chase.
Chase finished in a tie for 11th place with a combined score of 220. Being only a sophomore, Chase knows the importance of experience for the freshmen. In his freshman year, Chase competed in all of the team’s nine tournaments, and now he hopes to help lead the Falcons this season.
“I think we are going to do all right. Everybody is playing good and we are going to have a good season,” Chase said. “Once the inexperienced players get used to playing golf at the college level, our season should turn out to be a good one.”
The Falcons will have plenty of chances to provide experience to the young and inexperienced freshmen. The next tournament for the Falcons begins this weekend. Bowling Green will travel to Ball State for the Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational. The team is very optimistic for this tournament and others throughout the rest of the season.
“We should play good this weekend. It is a course which allows you to score good on. Now that the freshmen have their first tournament under their belt, we should do very well,” said Chase.
The three day tournament, in which the Falcons finished eleventh last year, will begin Friday and run through the weekend.
