Northwestern senior golfer was in position to take first place at the Boilermaker Invitational after 36 holes.

Two 69s on Saturday put Johnson at the top of the field at the 18-team tournament in West Lafayette, Ind.

“I thought I was gonna win this one,” Johnson said.

The two-time All-American instead placed third after carding a 2-over 74 in the final round Sunday.

“I was a little disappointed today because I hit it really well and I kept hitting good putts, but they just weren’t going in,” Johnson said. “Some days the hole just seems smaller.”

NU took sixth place overall at the invitational, placing ahead of five Big Ten schools including Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa and Wisconsin. Indiana beat out the Cats for fifth place by four strokes.

“We were disappointed that we lost to Indiana, but beating Illinois by a stroke was really big for us,” Johnson said.

Purdue, which hosted the event, won the tournament by two strokes over Colorado.

The 41st-ranked Cats also placed ahead of No. 5 Oklahoma State and No. 18 Oklahoma, both “good wins” that set a strong precedent for the spring season, coach Pat Goss said.

“I would have liked to beat a few teams that we didn’t, but we definitely made good progress,” Goss said.

Senior Casey Strunk and junior Dillon Dougherty both had “slightly sub-par events,” Goss said.

Strunk fired rounds of 73, 71 and 75 to finish in 21st place, and Dougherty took 52nd after shooting an 80 in the final round.

“For the first 47 holes it wasn’t that bad — I was all right,” Dougherty said. “The last seven (holes) were kind of terrible. It ruined the tournament for me.”

Dougherty played the invitational with a re-shafted driver after the head of the club flew off during practice the day before the event.

“It wasn’t a very good start to the week,” he said.

Senior T.C. Ford placed 60th with rounds of 77, 74 and 78. Ford carded 13 birdies during the three rounds, Goss said, but those holes were offset by several double and triple bogeys.

Following the tournament, the team is “feeling pretty good” about its position in the Big Ten, Johnson said.

Going into the invitational, “we kind of had a revived attitude about our team and what our purpose was,” Strunk said. “We went in fired up and said this was our coming-out party for the spring. We played with a lot more energy than we have.”

The Cats will try to bring that same energy to the course next weekend in Columbus, Ohio, at the Kepler Intercollegiate, a tournament in which the team has “traditionally played very well,” Goss said.

But the Cats’ performance at the Boilermaker showed they still are searching for consistently solid fourth and fifth scorers, Strunk said.

“If we can find someone to fill that void,” Strunk said, “we’re gonna be dangerous.”