Men’s Golf

Northwestern showed flashes of potential at the Bridgestone Golf Collegiate, but ultimately committed too many errors to claim its second straight title.

Although the Wildcats led the 13-team field with a whopping 70 birdies, they didn’t follow up on their previous victory in the Milwaukee Invitational and tied for third at 25-under par, five strokes back of the winner, Duke. NU was led by juniors Dylan Wu and Sam Triplett, who both finished the tournament Monday tied for fourth with scores of 8-under par.

Although Wu regularly posts top finishes, Triplett was seeded fourth on the team and his placement represented a breakout performance.  

“That was his best performance of his career, so that was great to see,” coach David Inglis said. “He’s just improved so much. We’re starting to see what we knew was going to be coming for some time.”

Triplett’s best round came in the second of three, when he shot a 4-under 68 to come within two strokes of the individual lead. He was in a similarly good position last year at the same tournament, before he shot a 5-over in the final round.

But this time he shot a 2-under on the final day, notching birdies on three of the last four holes.

“There wasn’t that much extra pressure because the coaches have taught us … how to stay in the moment on each shot and not to worry too much about where you are in the tournament,” Triplett said. “I just hit it really well this week, and I got a few putts to drop too, so it really all came together for a good result.”

Leading the field in birdies gave the Cats a leg up on the field, but numerous bogeys throughout the two days kept NU from winning the tournament.

Freshmen Everton Hawkins and Triplett both demonstrated the squad’s inconsistency. Triplett and Hawkins finished second and tied for seventh in birdies respectively, but made mistakes that dropped them lower in the overall standings.

“We made a ton of birdies, which was really encouraging. We just had way too many silly mistakes,” Inglis said. “This time of year that’s fine, but we need to make sure that we learn from that and tighten up and turn around for the next event.”

Even with the mistakes, the performances of Hawkins, who notched a 5-under in one of the best tournaments of his brief career, and Triplett bode well for the future. The team was still able to muster a solid performance, even though usual leaders like senior Andrew Whalen and sophomore Ryan Lumsden did not have their best days.

“(We’re) continuing to become more consistent and playing pretty well right now,” Wu said. “We’ve just got to keep on working on minimizing the mistakes and getting ready for next week.”

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