Despite competing without its best player, Northwestern was still disappointed with its sixth place finish at the 12-team Boilermaker Invitational last weekend.
Playing without senior Dillon Dougherty, who was competing in the Masters, the Wildcats had a chance to sneak up on the other teams in the field with a strong performance.
“We did have an opportunity to surprise a few people this week,” junior David Merkow said. “I still feel disappointed, and I’m sure that most of the team feels disappointed that we didn’t do better. We feel that we could have won the tournament.”
The invitational was important for the Cats because it contained several teams from their district and strong head-to-head performances against those teams are important for NCAA Regionals qualification.
While the Cats did finish ahead of a few of the teams in their district, they still felt they should’ve done better.
“As a whole, it was disappointing for the team,” junior Chris Wilson said. “The field was not the strongest, and we played poorly.”
Merkow led the Cats with a 6-over-par performance to finish in ninth place. After the first two rounds, Merkow stood in 15th place, but his final round 1-under 71 bumped him into the top-10, his second out of three events this spring.
“Purdue’s course suited my strengths,” Merkow said. “I didn’t feel as if I played very well, and I cost myself a few shots with bad decisions and poor putting. I was pleased with the way that I hung in there during the last round. I pride myself on finishing strong, and I was able to do that in the last round, which was encouraging.”
Wilson also turned in a strong outing this week. Like Merkow, Wilson shot 71 on Sunday to place 11th. In his second round, in which he shot a 6-over 78, Wilson made a quadruple bogey on a par 3 followed by a double bogey on the next hole.
“I played really well this weekend for 52 of the 54 holes,” Wilson said. “Make those two holes pars, and I shoot 1-over for the event and finish second alone. Overall, I played well, but those two holes cost me big time.”
Sophomores Kyle Moore and Dan Doyle finished 33rd and 43rd, respectively. Moore shot 16-over for the weekend, while Doyle turned in an 18-over total.
The final member of the NU contingent was senior Scott Weber, who was replacing Dougherty and placed 56th in his first tournament of the year.
While Merkow and Wilson acknowledged that Dougherty could’ve helped, they also conceded that his presence would not have erased the 28-shot deficit that stood in between the Cats and first-place Indiana.
“With or without Dillon, the other five guys who played were disappointed,” Wilson said. “Dillon would have made a difference, but I don’t think it would have been to the extent of going from sixth to winning. We still needed four other scores even if we had Dillon.”
Big Ten schools Indiana and Purdue finished the tournament first and second, respectively, with Indiana’s Jorge Campillo claiming medalist honors by eight strokes.
The Cats finished third among the six Big Ten schools competing in the tournament, finishing ahead of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota
“One of our goals for the spring was to re-establish our Big Ten dominance, and we didn’t do that at the Boilermaker,” Merkow said.
The Cats will return to action full strength next weekend at the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate in Columbus, Ohio.
Reach Michael Schlossberg at
