At the Alister MacKenzie Invitational on Tuesday, the Northwestern men’s golf team’s bid to win its second straight tournament came up short.
The Wildcats’ Dillon Dougherty’s attempt to capture his first collegiate win, however, did not.
Dougherty’s score of 70-70-67–209 earned him a share of the individual title at the two-day, 15-team tournament, played on The Meadow Club’s 6,585-yard, par-71 course in Fairfax, Calif.
The senior’s previous best collegiate finish was fourth, at the 2003 Inverness Intercollegiate in Toledo, Ohio.
“It means a lot to me,” said Dougherty, adding that the tournament’s location — 90 miles from his hometown of Woodland, Calif. — made the win particularly special.
“To (win) today with my parents, my grandpa, my uncle and my cousin watching — it was really cool.”
Sophomore David Merkow, who had his best collegiate finish — a tie for third — following Tuesday’s 73, was in second after rounds of 70 and 67.
The team did not fare as well, finishing fourth with a score of 858, 10 shots higher than champion Oregon State.
Also finishing ahead of the Cats were California (third, 856) and Purdue (second, 855), whose Bobby Bennett (71-68-68–209) tied Dougherty for the tournament lead.
But with no playoff holes in NCAA golf, the title was Dougherty’s to share.
“I’m elated for Dillon,” coach Pat Goss said. “He really played great…especially today.”
However, Goss added, “Team-wise, I was disappointed.”
The Cats shared the lead after Monday’s 36 holes with Oregon State, and But negative momentum from the day’s final holes seemed to carry over to Tuesday.
“We really struggled our last three holes (Monday) and kind of let the field back in play,” Goss said. “We had a good chance, if we finished a little stronger (Monday), to finish the 36-hole day with a six, seven, eight shot lead.”
Instead, with the scores even and no margin for error, NU fell off the leaderboard after a slow start Tuesday.
“Unfortunately,” Goss said, “the third, fourth and fifth guys all got off to poor starts and played poor front nines.”
Dougherty carded a double-bogey on Monday’s last hole, but didn’t allow his late-in-the-round blunder to affect his play.
“I just kind of calmed myself down (Monday) night and wanted to go out and play solid (Tuesday) and just see what happened.,” Dougherty said.
He cruised in the final round and seemed unable to hit a bad shot.
“I really hit it well,” Dougherty said. “I didn’t really make any (putts), but … I hit it awesome.”
Although Goss was discouraged with his team’s performance, but he said there were many reasons for optimism.
“The situation with golf,” Goss said, “is … you’re trying to create opportunities to have a chance to win on the last day. So I’m happy we did that.
“I want to make sure, come springtime, when we have that same opportunity at the Big Ten Championship, that we’re going to close the deal.”
Junior Bryson Young (71-75-76–222), who shot 206, finished second at last year’s Alister MacKenzie, and freshman Dan Doyle (74-71-77–222) tied for 39th. Sophomore Chris Wilson (71-75-79–225) finished 53rd.
This was Dougherty’s third collegiate tournament at The Meadow Club. He shot 221 in both 2002 and 2003, with both performances placing him below 40th.
Dougherty said he had played the course twice with his grandfather while still in Woodland.
The Cats’ next tournament, their final event of the fall, is the Big Ten/PAC-10 Challenge in Bandon, Ore., on Oct. 25-26.
Reach Patrick Dorsey at [email protected].
Alister MacKenzie Invitational
Oct. 11-12
The Meadow Club
Fairfax, Calif.
15 teams in field
TEAM SCORE
1. Oregon State 848
2. Purdue 855
3. California 856
4. NU 858
5. Kansas State 859
6. Illinois 863
7. California Polytechnic 864
8. Washington 870
9. Oregon 875
10. Stanford 884
11. Pacific 887
12. San Jose State 891
Team 1 goes here
Team 2 goes here
Team 1 goes here
Tournament leaderboard
Career performances powered 2 Cats to lead the pack
T1. Bobby Bennett, Purdue 71-68-68 –207
T1. Dillon Dougherty, NU 70-70-67–207
T3. David Merkow, NU 70-67-73–210
T3. Alex Prugh, Washington 70-71-69 –210
Five golfers tied for fifth place
