In the last tournament of its fall schedule, the Northwestern men’s golf team tied for seventh with host Stanford at the Nelson Invitational on Sunday.
After what NU coach Pat Goss called a “poor” first round on Friday and a “worse” second round on Saturday, the Cats surged in the last nine holes on Sunday to finish 21 shots behind winner Duke.
“Our strongest day was definitely (Sunday),” Goss said. “We played a good last nine holes and made a lot of headway.”
Junior Tom Johnson and senior Scott Harrington shot final-round scores of 67 and 69, respectively, to boost NU. Johnson tied for a 2-under 11th place finish — 10 strokes behind winner Leif Olson of Duke — after shooting a 72 in both the first and second rounds. Harrington finished with a 3-over 216 to tie for 23rd.
Rounding out the NU team, senior Bjorn Widerstedt tied for 28th at 4-over, and juniors Casey Strunk and T.C. Ford both shot final rounds of 72 to finish 37th and 73rd, respectively.
“If it wasn’t for the last nine holes, (the tournament) would have been mediocre, but we salvaged it at the end,” Johnson said. “We didn’t let ourselves get beat by the teams that we really needed to beat — Miami (Ohio), Notre Dame, Missouri — and legitimately good teams beat us.”
Several ranked teams participated in The Nelson, including No. 23 Toledo and No. 26 Duke.
“We came in with high expectations, and we were bummed after the first two rounds,” Harrington said. “But we finished on a good note.
“It would have left a sour taste in our mouths if we had played bad (Sunday) and limped out.”
The 18-team invitational, held at the Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., was the last of several West Coast tournaments the Cats have competed in this fall. Most recently, NU finished second at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational in Fairfax, Calif., on Oct. 15.
Five of NU’s eight players hail from the West Coast, so the fall schedule gave them the opportunity to play in front of family and friends, Goss said.
With the fall season behind them, the Cats will evaluate their play and plan for the spring season, which begins in February.
“We need to keep up our fall pace all year,” Goss said. “We have very, very good (top-three players), as good as any in the country, and we need to strengthen our fourth and fifth (positions).”
The Cats entered the fall season after going winless last year and didn’t know what to expect, Harrington said.
“I’m happy with the way that we’ve played. We got a ‘W’ and have had good individual performances,” said Harrington, referring to the win at NU’s own Windon Memorial Classic on Oct. 1.
“We’ve asserted ourselves and shown that we’re a team to contend with both in the Big Ten and nationally, and we will be ready to go in the spring.”