Despite a strong second round and junior David Lipsky’s 11th place individual performance, Northwestern finished 13th in the season-opening Fighting Illini Invitational this past weekend.
The Wildcats shot an overall team score of 51-over 891 for the three-day tournament, highlighted by Saturday’s 5-over 285 that jumped the team three spots up the leaderboard and tied for the second-lowest team round of the day.
“The biggest positive for us this week was in the second round,” coach Pat Goss said. “We showed we could beat the best teams in the country.”
A key part of the Cats’ Saturday success was freshman Eric Chun, who shaved eight strokes off his score en route to a 69 in just his second collegiate round. Chun and Lipsky were the only Northwestern golfers to shoot sub-par rounds for the tournament.
Sophomore Ravi Patel also improved his score drastically from the first day, carding a 76 that was a full 10 strokes lower than his Friday round.
After struggling to a first-round 76 at Olympia Fields Country Club, Lipsky finished strong with a 2-under 68 on Saturday and an even-par 70 on Sunday, which is no small feat considering how difficult the course played.
“We played it with extremely high rough,” Goss said. He explained that because of the recent rain in the area, the rough grew a lot and became very thick, creating U.S. Open-like conditions for the players.
Goss said he was especially pleased by Lipsky’s play, considering that the junior had not played particularly well throughout most of the preseason workouts.
Lipsky, who led the Cats in rounds of par or better last year with 11, attributed his return to form to working on things that “helped (him) control (his) ball flight a lot more.”
During the last two days of the tournament, Lipsky said he gained confidence in his swing and began to trust it more.
Lipsky managed to birdie three of his first four holes on Friday, but could not sustain the momentum to the end of the round. As a team, NU put itself in an early hole by finishing the first day in last place among the fifteen teams.
“I would definitely attribute (the slow start) to first-round jitters,” Lipsky said.
Goss underscored that the players have to learn to “manage (their) bad rounds better” as the season progresses. Three rounds like Saturday’s would have earned the Cats a second-place finish, but poor performances on Friday and Sunday sank their chances of a strong result.
Lipsky believes that improved confidence will help in the team playing up to its potential more consistently, just as it has for him.
“Our team has a lot of talent,” he said. “Everyone on the team has to realize how good they really are.”
NU does not play again until it hosts the Windon Memorial Classic, starting October 5 at North Shore Country Club. The Cats won the tournament last year, and this past Saturday demonstrated that successfully defending their title is not out of the question.
“One of our strengths this year is our depth,” Goss said. “We have a very strong 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. One of the biggest things for us this year is just seeing how we’re going to develop at the top.”
