Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support the IDS in College Media Madness! Donate here March 24 - April 8.
Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

IU men's golf has “lost opportunity” against nation’s best golf teams

spiumgrecap092219.jpg

The IU men’s golf team failed to capitalize on a chance to put itself on the map against some of the nation’s best teams this weekend.

The Hoosiers finished the Fighting Illini Invitational in 15th place, shooting 64 strokes over par. 

“It’s a lost opportunity,” IU head coach Mike Mayer said. “On paper, that’s where we should have finished, but we had the opportunity to compete and beat some of the best teams in the country and we didn’t take advantage of that opportunity.”

IU received some help from the bottom of its lineup. Senior Brock Ochsenreiter led the team, shooting 12 strokes over par, including shooting two strokes over par in his final two rounds. Ochsenreiter finished the tournament tied for 54th.

Junior Ethan Shepard had a strong first round as well, shooting an even par and finishing the tournament tied for 59th. 

The top of the lineup had its struggles all weekend. The one spot, sophomore Mitch Davis, stroked 20 over par and finished in 77th.

“For us to compete against a field like that we need a combined effort and we just did not get that,” Mayer said.

Mayer said the spots in the lineup are set based on how the players perform in qualifiers and tournaments, and although it is not entirely relevant who is in which spot, it is expected that the top spots are the best golfers on the team.

Mayer also mentioned that making every stroke competitive is the key to the performance, and doing that, regardless of where the team finishes, creates a successful day. But the team failed to achieve that this weekend.

“Golf is a different sport in that every player who’s ever played the game can have great days one day and bad days the next day,” Mayer said. “All we talk about is competing hard as you can compete and fighting for every single stroke.”

The Hoosiers only took five players to the invite, as no individuals qualified. But there are 10 players on the roster, and Mayer said there are players who stayed in Bloomington that are shooting very well.

Before the Marquette Intercollegiate on Oct. 6, the team will have another qualifier to see which players make the lineup and where they slot.

“I suspect that we’ll see some lineup changes,” Mayer said. “Our lineup is not set, we think we’re as deep this year as we’ve been for a while.”

After a week of tournaments like last week, Mayer and associate head coach Corey Ziedonis meet to breakdown the statistics of the events. 

They’ll do so Monday, looking over the team’s performance at both Olympia Fields this weekend and the Windon Memorial Classic on Sept. 16 and Sept 17. These meetings will help guide the coaches through what skills need the most practicing before the next tournament.

Drives and putts are easy to point out as areas the team may need to work on. It’s what is not so easy, like mental toughness, that Mayer said his team needs to improve. 

“This is a game where you have to handle adversity, and I don’t think we handled that adversity as well as we should have,” Mayer said. “In this game, sometimes you get knocked down and you get beat up. You have to dust yourself off and stand back up and be ready to do battle again.”

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe