IU settles for seventh at Windon Memorial

After achieving first and second place finishes to open the fall golf season, the Hoosiers came up short at the Windon Memorial, finishing seventh.

“Unless you bring your A game, you’re going to get your butts handed to you,” IU Coach Mike Mayer said. “That is kind of what happened in this tournament to us.”

It was a Big Ten battle at the top of the team leaderboard to determine the champion. Ohio State fought back from a 14-stoke deficit behind Northwestern in the first round to outlast the Wildcats and capture the Windon title.

For the third straight tournament, the Hoosiers placed someone in the top three of the individual standings. Monday, junior Hugo Menendez finished his third round with a tournament total of a 3-over-par 216.

“I was hitting the ball pretty well in the previous tournaments, and I just tried to keep it going,” Menendez said. “I made a couple changes with my putter so I could putt better to get lower scoring.”

At the conclusion of round one, the Hoosiers were six strokes behind Northwestern, which finished with 292, and Mayer said the Hoosiers struggled on the last three holes as they finished their rounds.

“We did not handle difficult situations as well as we should have,” Mayer said. “With three holes to play in round one, we were in position close to the lead and played those three holes very poorly.”

Menendez maintained steady play throughout the tournament as he led the Hoosiers in scoring in each of the rounds with scores of 73-73-70 (216). His 70 in the third round was the only score under par for the Hoosiers during the tournament.

“Hugo Menendez had an outstanding tournament,” Mayer said. “He really did the job he needed to do this week, and now he knows he can play at the highest level, and I expect to see more of this in the future from him.”

Senior Brant Peaper matched Menendez in the first round but struggled in the second, shooting a 7-over-par 78.

“His short game let him down in the second round,” Mayer said. “I think he got a little uncomfortable and lost confidence around the greens.”

Peaper battled back in the final round to shave four strokes off his second round score, marking the best round-to-round turnaround for the Hoosiers in the tournament.

Senior Corey Ziedonis and freshman Sean Stone were the only Hoosiers to drop strokes in the second round from their first round scores.

“Corey continues to show he is a gamer,” Mayer said. “His determination is what we need. He is determined to go out there and fight, scratch and claw for the best tournament he can have. He did a nice job.”

Stone closed with a disappointing final round of 88, 17 over par, in his first team start for IU.

Mayer said he needs the team to play together as well as individually to improve from last weekend’s performance.

“We just never really got it going as a team,” Mayer said. “We were not able to get everyone on the same page at the same time. It took us awhile to get comfortable with the greens and how fast and firm they were. But we know that we have to do a better job with that, because we will see more of the same next weekend at Olympia Fields.”