Men’s Golf

Northwestern ended a better-than-anticipated fall season with a dramatic finish.

The Wildcats placed in a tie for third out of eight teams Wednesday at the Gifford Collegiate, a tournament contested with a combination of stroke and match play over three days. After the team finished tied for fifth in stroke play, graduate student Conor Richardson staged a dramatic comeback during the Cats’ third-place match against Washington that culminated in making a match-tying putt.

“It was really cool going down the stretch,” Richardson said. “We weren’t too sure what putts were going to matter, so we tried to claw for each hole.”

The first day of the tournament began with two rounds of stroke play to determine the seeding of the matches. Junior Dylan Wu led NU at 7-under par to finish tied for fourth overall in the stroke play tournament.

That set up a matchup with Colorado in the first round, with the Cats squeaking by 3.5-2.5. Freshman Everton Hawkins birdied the 18th hole to secure his match, 1 up, and ensure the victory.

Next came a showdown with the top seed, No. 18 USC, in the semifinals. NU lost the match 4-2, but came within just a few strokes of pulling an upset. Richardson won his individual match and was heartened by the team’s overall performance.

“We started OK in stroke play … but all bets are off in match play,” Richardson said. “We proved to everyone that we can hang with anyone in the country when it comes to match play.”

The loss to the Trojans set NU up for the exciting ending in the third-place match against the Huskies. Richardson was in one of the last pairings, and while he said he was not fully aware of the overall picture, Richardson birdied two of the final three holes to finish all square and tie the overall match.

The format of the tournament mirrors the final rounds of the NCAA Championships, which were changed to match play two years ago. This tournament, the Bush Cup and the Big Ten Match Play Tournament are the only chances the Cats have on their schedule to compete in match play.

“I thought the format was great,” coach David Inglis said. “It was to give a chance to experience what it was like at the NCAAs. That added excitement, and they enjoyed the head-to-head match play.”

The tournament was the team’s final competition of a fall season that has given NU a chance to compete against many of the nation’s top teams and establish itself as a contender. The Cats won their first tournament in three years at the Marquette Invitational and statistical rankings from Golfstat now rank them 36th in the country.

“We showed this fall that we’re a really good team,” Wu said. “We competed against the best teams; we won a tournament and were a few holes from beating USC. … Hopefully we can carry that momentum into the spring and through Nationals.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @benjyapelbaum