The start of spring was supposed to give the men’s golf team a chance to shake off the winter struggles.

After taking a five-week break from tournament play, the Wildcats traveled to North Carolina for the Courtyard by Marriott Intercollegiate.

Northwestern coach Pat Goss said he hoped the first tournament of the spring could be a chance to give his young team confidence as it moved into next weekend’s Aggie Invitational, which features teams in the same NCAA region as the Cats.

But at the Devils Ridge Golf Club, the Cats faced similar struggles that gave them two 16th-place finishes in two tournaments in late February.

NU shot 21-over in the rain-shortened match, finishing 15th in a 15-team field.

“The conditions gave us a good scoring opportunity,” Goss said. “But our bad rounds were too bad and the good rounds weren’t good enough.”

Junior Dillon Dougherty shot an even-par 72 in the first round but shot a 6-over 78 in the second round to drop to 6-over 150 for the weekend. Dougherty ended up in 58th place.

Sophomore Chris Wilson turned in the best individual performance for the Cats with a 4-over 148, finishing in 49th place.

Freshman Dan Doyle (8-over 152) finished 65th, freshman Kyle Moore (9-over 153) took 68th place and sophomore David Merkow (12-over 156) finished 74th.

Duke won the tournament, edging Wake Forest and Georgia Southern by one stroke. Aron Price from Georgia Southern won the individual title with a 14-under 130.

Goss said the Cats were inconsistent throughout the two rounds with a lot of errors in their short game.

“We have to find some players who are ready to compete right now,” Goss said. “We need guys who are ready to go out and shoot low scores.”

In West Lafayette, Ind., the women’s golf team continued its impressive spring, following up its first tournament win since 2001 with a third-place finish in Sunday’s Lady Boilermaker Invitational.

After taking the tournament lead after the first day, the Cats ended up two shots behind Michigan and Texas Christian.

“We are disappointed,” senior Ina Kim said. “We scored really low in the first round, but we broke down during the last day.”

Kim, who had the indvidual lead the first two rounds, shot an 8-over 80 in the final round, finishing seventh with an 8-over 224. Sophomore Alice Kim shot a 10-over 226 to finish 11th, and freshman Katie Trachok had the best finish of her career at NU, shooting an 11-over 227 to finish 13th.

Freshman Brittany Johnston shot a 14-over 230, finishing 21st, and Kelly Robb shot a 19-over 235, finishing 38th.

Both teams will have a chance at redemption next weekend as the men’s team will play in the Aggie Invitational in Bryan, Texas, and the women’s team will travel to Columbus, Ohio, for the Lady Buckeye Invitational.

Reach Scott Duncan at [email protected].

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