At this weekend’s Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational in Statesboro, Ga., the Forest Heights Country Club was so easy it was hard.

On a wide open course played under a southern sun that yielded perfect conditions, scores went low and the Northwestern men’s golf team couldn’t follow. The No. 6 Wildcats took ninth at a competitive tournament in which NU’s disappointing finish further exposed a glaring weakness: the team’s lack of depth.

In a field dominated by southern schools — and won by No. 7 Georgia with a 35-under 829 — the Cats couldn’t put enough low scores on the board and managed just one top-10 finish. Luke Donald — currently ranked No. 1 in the nation by Golfweek — shot a 6-under 210 to tie for fifth, and no other NU golfer finished better than 27th.

“It was a great tournament full of great southern schools,” coach Pat Goss said. “Georgia turned it into a shootout, and we struggled. On difficult greens, we didn’t have enough birdie opportunities. We just don’t have enough guys breaking 70 right now.”

Only Donald broke par for the Cats. Josh Habig was NU’s next highest finisher, taking 27th with a 2-over 218. No. 9 Jess Daley shot a 4-over 220, and Daniel Riskam tallied a 9-over for the tourney.

The E-Z-Go was easily NU’s worst tournament of the year, and Goss is concerned. Earlier in the season, the Cats finished third at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship and second at the San Juan Shootout, and in each tourney NU relied heavily on low scores and high finishes from Donald and Daley.

Most of the teams that beat the Cats this weekend are ranked, and most proved they had the depth to take advantage of an easy course. Georgia, for example, placed three golfers in the top five. NU just proved that depth was something it desperately needs.

“It used to be one of our greatest prides, having a fourth or fifth guy who could finish in the top 10,” Goss said. “Now we have guys who can stop the bleeding a little bit, but we need more than that. We need guys to put up something great from those positions.”