After two rounds, the DWU Men's golf team is not off to the start that we had hoped for, but we are continuously getting better each and every tournament.
After a third place finish in Springfield, Missouri at the Evangel Spring Invitational, we are going to start looking for some imrpovements in our game as a team. Tyler Evenson highlighted the tournament with a tie for first place followed closely by senior Brett Abbotts who had a tie for 4th place respectively. Other Tigers competing in the tournament were Freshman Andrew Farrand, Junior and GPAC Conference tournament leader Nick Gates, sophomore Christopher Pritchard and sophomore transfer Adam Shiffermiller.
The Tigers then travelled to Fulton, Missouri where they competed in the loaded field at the William Woods Spring Invitational. The Tigers struggled in wet, soggy and windy conditions on their way to a 6th place finish, 21 strokes behind tournament winners Grand View. The Tigers top performer was senior Brett Abbotts who carded a 75 in his final round to find himself in a tie for 8th place. Adam Shiffermiller had a strong performance playing as an individual finishing in 11th place after carding rounds of 77 and 76. Also competing for the Tigers were sophomores Tyler Evenson and Chris Pritchard as well as junior Nick Gates and freshman Andrew Farrand.
After some contemplation and much though, Coach Anderson decided to have Adam Shiffermiller and Chris Pritchard have a playoff at McCook Country Club in Salem, South Dakota to decide who would be coming to the third GPAC Qualifier. After 18 holes, sophomore transfer Shiffermiller edged out Pritchard by a couple of strokes to earn his way on to the team for the first time in his young collegiate golf career. The decision came after a struggling performance from Pritchard and a solid and consistent performance from Shiffermiller. It just goes to show the depth that we have on our team this year and that our "spots" are never exactly safe.
Shortly after the qualifier while the Tigers were getting in some practice over in Salem, Coach Anderson was notified that we would not be travelling to Hastings, Nebraska on Monday, April 6th for our third GPAC qualifier. The tournament was post poned due to some pretty terrible conditions including gale force winds and the possibility of snow. The conditions for most teams just to make it to the event would prove to be quite difficult, so the tournament has been changed to Thursday, April 9th at the Lochland Country Club in Hastings, Nebraska.
Historically, the Tigers have played very well at this golf course, carding 18 hole scores of 292 in the fall season of 2008 and 291 in the fall season of 2007. The Tigers have the length and shot control to card some solid scores on this golf course and we are all looking forward to getting back there to extend or maintain our lead in the GPAC National Qualifying tournament.
Keep tuned in to the web site and check back for some more updates coming shortly after our round on Thursday!
For questions or comments, please contact Coach Anderson adanders@dwu.edu or Brett Abbotts brabbott@dwu.edu and either one would be happy to respond as soon as they possibly can.
Written by: Brett Abbotts
April 4th, 2009
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