Men’s Golf

Few tournaments in collegiate golf bring together a field as large or competitive as The Goodwin. Northwestern ended its spring break on a high note, playing its way to an eighth-place finish in The Goodwin’s 26-team field at Stanford this weekend, besting a number of NCAA powerhouses in the process.

Coach David Inglis praised the Wildcats’ effort at the tournament particularly after a pair of lackluster showings in the prior two events left the team in need of success.

“We were all very encouraged by what we were able to show this week, especially in a field that good,” Inglis said. “We’d had a few events in a row where we just hadn’t been able to put it together, and this was definitely a step in the right direction for us.”

NU’s performance included important wins over the nation’s top ranked team, USC, as well as SMU and UCLA, two other highly highly-ranked programs. These victories are likely to bolster the team’s resume and ranking, which will be critical in determining its postseason status.

The Cats finished with a tournament total of 14-over par, four shots behind seventh-place Pepperdine and three shots clear of ninth-place USC. UC Davis won the event at 13-under, followed by UNLV at 3-under and tournament host Stanford at 1-under.

With the Big Ten Championships just over three weeks away, Inglis said he believes the team’s most recent performance provides further reason for optimism.

“It seems like we’ve been saying it all year, but beating the top team in the nation just goes to show again that we can beat anyone when it’s our day,” Inglis said. “We’ve got the Big Tens coming up and we know we’ll see Illinois and a few other top teams, so having that confidence and belief is important.”

NU was led by a pair of top-20 performances from two of its usual standouts. Sophomore Dylan Wu paced the squad with a three-round total of 1-over par, good enough to finish tied for 13th place individually, while senior Josh Jamieson finished tied for 17th at 2-over. Senior Andrew Whalen and freshman Ryan Lumsden both posted 6-over scores to finish tied for 41st, and sophomore Sam Triplett tied for 82nd at 12-over.

Freshmen Luke Miller (15-over) and Pete Griffith (17-over) competed as individuals and finished tied for 105th and tied for 112th, respectively.

The Cats’ performance at The Goodwin was a true team effort, with four players carding rounds in the 60s. Jamieson said this is particularly important at this stage in the season, as the team cannot simply rely on the top of its lineup to make a deep postseason run.

“Dylan and Andrew have played really solid for us all year and we’ve found ourselves leaning on them pretty heavily at different times, which you just can’t do and expect to have much success,” Jamieson said. “Now with my game coming around and some of these other guys playing well, it seems like things might be coming together at the right time.”

Despite the strong showing, Inglis said he does not believe NU has found its ceiling. Rather, he said his team’s best golf may very well be on the horizon.

“The thing is that we really still haven’t put together a complete tournament where it all clicks,” Inglis said. “If we can get Dylan and Andrew and Josh all playing well at the same time, we are going to be really tough to beat.”

The Cats return to action at the Kepler Invitational in Columbus, Ohio on April 9-10.

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Twitter: @TGVanderMolen