Have you ever teed up a ball on any hole and had sleet or hail showering down on you? We did. Have you ever played golf while it was raining and weather maybe coming close to the upper teens or lower 20s? We did. The third GPAC Qualifier played at Lochland Country Club in Hastings, Nebraska was one of the cruelest and toughest tournaments that any of us have ever played or faced in our college careers. We battled wind, rain, severe cold, hail, sleet and I think there might have been a little snow mixed in there. On the other hand, we still have a lead, not much of one, but we are still on top.
Let me take you back to the fall season...we were 19 strokes ahead of Nebraska Wesleyan and 36 strokes ahead of Morningside. After our 3rd qualifier, we are only 5 strokes ahead of NWU and 30 ahead of Morningside, but Hastings crept up the leaderboard with a score of 303 to win the tounament on their home course and also to sit 27 strokes behind us after three rounds.
Some of the scores we posted...
T-13 Brett Abbotts....78
T-17 Tyler Evenson...79
T-28 Nick Gates.......82
T-37 Andrew Farrand..83
T-37 Adam Shiffermiller...83
DWU Team Score .....322 (T-6th)
Unfortuantely, we did not put up our best numbers at this tournament and we really struggled with the last three or four holes. I believe we ended up take 5 penalty strokes on the last hole and not one of us even made a par on the par 5. That right there is the difference between having a 10 stroke lead and the 5 stroke lead that we have now.
So, with those scores, here is how our team sits in the GPAC Standings.
T-1 Brett Abbotts....+8
5th Nick Gates.........+10
T-10 Tyler Evenson....+16
T-10 Andrew Farrand..+16
Due to Pritch not playing in this tournament, he now forfeits his spot to be able to automatically be named All-Conference player should he have finished inside the top-10, but he is still able to make All-Conference by being selected. The same goes for Shiff since he did not compete in the first two events, he will not be able to make the All-Conference selection.
ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF THINGS!!!!
WE ARE STILL RATED IN THE TOP 25!!!!!!!
Currently, we are sitting in 24th place for rating. We only lost 10 votes in the ratings considering our not-so-decent scoring that we have been posting and we are ahead of some other schools that probably should be ahead of us, but we, of course, are definitely not going to start complaining anytime soon!
So with all of this...I leave writing one thing...we have played absolutely nowhere near our full potential...we are not down...we have not given up...we will be back. We have a pretty large chip on our shoulders and we are going to be playing with a very large purpose for the next couple of weeks. I wish the rest of the GPAC conference the best of luck.
Written by: Brett Abbotts
Any questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail head coach Adam Anderson adanders@dwu.edu or Brett Abbotts brabbott@dwu.edu and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
Comments