Men’s Golf

After the first round of the Windon Memorial Classic, Northwestern was tied for third. Two rounds later, the Wildcats found themselves in the bottom half of the 15-team field.

Hosting the Windon at The Knollwood Club in Lake Forest, NU struggled on its way to a ninth place finish.

“We just looked a bit rusty, we looked a bit flat,” coach David Inglis said. “I would say we weren’t quite ready to compete and that’s what we have to figure out.”

The one golfer who stood out among the group was senior Ryan Lumsden. Lumsden — who played in the U.S. Open and the World Amateur Team Championships for Scotland this summer — continued his successful summer stretch into the fall with a 5-under-par three-round score, tying him for fourth place with South Florida’s Ryoto Furuya.

The senior began his tournament with a great first day. After finishing the first round at 5-under, Lumsden shot 1-under for his second round to place him one stroke behind UC Davis’ Thomas Hutchison — the leader after two rounds.

On the second day, Lumsden slumped to a 1-over third round to finish in fourth place while Hutchison shot 4-under to end at 11-under, which is tied for the lowest score in the history of the Windon. Lumsden said he felt very good for the first round and a half, but that his performance on day two was a frustrating one.

“It was just one of those days where I just couldn’t quite get it going,” Lumsden said. “I would say I played pretty smart. I managed my game very well but I really just had nothing that final day, which was disappointing.”

Lumsden was not the only player disappointed in his performance. After shooting even-par in the first round, junior Everton Hawkins finished the weekend at 4-over, which tied him for 33rd.

The California native said that his performance at the tournament was “not good.”

“I thought my game was a lot worse than the score,” Hawkins said. “I’m learning how to score better and to produce better results without really a good game at all.”

All eight golfers on the NU roster played at the Windon. Hawkins, Lumsden, freshman Lucas Becht, sophomore Eric McIntosh and freshman David Nyfjäll were the five players in the starting lineup whose scores counted towards the Cats overall score. Freshman Yannick Artigolle, senior Pete Griffith and sophomore Harrison Murphy played as individuals.

Nyfjäll, the only other NU golfer to finish in the top 50, finished his first collegiate tournament at 4-over.

“It was obviously not what we were looking for coming off the summer and we would have liked to have done better especially at our home tournament,” Lumsden said. “But this team has a lot of potential and a lot of talent. It’s quite a young squad so I’m very hopeful we can have a good season. We just need to go and practice hard and get ready for the next week.”

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