With a last-place finish at the NSX Hoosier Invitational, it seems all the rain that soaked the Athens Country Club in the previous month also rusted Ohio’s clubs and drivers.
Ohio shot 57-over-par in it’s third tournament of the spring season and accumulated a combined three-round score of 909. Coach Bob Cooley had a hard time taking away any positives from the 14th place finish.
“We just didn’t play well,” Cooley said. “Bradley Lucas’ clubs were stolen and we had to deal with that, but overall we just have to get better.”
Cooley said Lucas’ clubs were sabotaged outside the van overnight, which was an inconvenience for the team prior to the match-up. The tale, hypothetically, was a foreshadowing of the Bobcats poor play to come in Bloomington, Ind.
Freshman Peyton White was the medalist for the Bobcats, tying for 35th on a three-round score of 223 and hitting seven birdies.
Junior Andrew Mlynarski followed White in the leaderboards, placing for 55th and shooting a best round of the tournament during the second round with a 74. He also added nine bogeys in the final round for the Bobcats.
Ty Herriott (63rd), Lucas (67th) and Phil Giesker (tied for 70th) rounded out the Bobcats’ individual finishes. Herriott shot his best during the second round, going four-over-par and tallying two birdies.
Cooley felt the team was really only affected during the first round after an absence of competitive play, as the last time Ohio played in a tournament was March 11.
“We just hit a lot of bad shots today, which of course lead to some really high scores,” he said bluntly.
The host team, Indiana, took first place after finishing just one-over-par and shooting a combined three round score of 853. Michigan, Akron, Youngstown State and Xavier rounded out the top-5 teams.
This weekend marked is the third straight tournament the Bobcats have finished in the bottom half of the leaderboards. The last time Ohio placed in the top half of the leaderboards was in October’s Cobra Puma Invitational, where they placed sixth out 13 teams.
