Men’s Golf

Opening the third day of the Marquette Intercollegiate in Wisconsin, senior Ryan Lumsden stepped up to the tee of the first hole one stroke behind the leader, world amatuer champion and Arizona State’s Alex del Rey.

Three shots later, Lumsden’s golf ball was in the cup for an eagle and Northwestern was off to the races.

Behind a standout performance from Lumsden, the Wildcats combined for a tournament-best third-round score of 12-under-par Tuesday as they finished the invitational in first place with Lumsden also claiming the individual title.

“We just had the right mindset going in,” Lumsden said. “We have on the inside of our yardage book ‘play to play great’ and we came out to play a really good round of golf.”

Lumsden found himself in position to win the tournament after a 4-under second round, the best round of golf played during a day permeated with poor weather. Lumsden was the only golfer to shoot in the 60s on day two.

Following his eagle on No. 1, Lumsden bogeyed two of his next three holes, but immediately responded. He scored five birdies on his next 10 holes. At the end of the stretch, Lumsden found himself one stroke ahead of del Rey. The Arizona State product would find himself still one back when he ended his day.

The individual title is the second of Lumsden’s career. His previous title also came at the Marquette Intercollegiate when he finished tied for first in 2016.

“Marquette has been good to me I’ll be honest,” Lumsden said. “Obviously delighted to get the individual win. Game feels like its in good shape and hopefully I’ll be able to leap frog from this.”

While Lumsden finished the tournament at the top, he did not have the lowest score of any NU golfer after the first round. That honor was held by freshman Lucas Becht.

Becht bounced back from a disappointing opening tournament with a 4-under performance in round one. The score put Becht one stroke behind day one leader Gonzalo Leal of Iowa.

“The first day I had coach helping me and my course navigation was brilliant, phenomenal actually,” Becht said. “Barely made any strategic mistakes, laying up in the right places, making clutch pars, just doing everything right.”

After the second day, neither Becht nor Leal were in the top five. A 4-over round for Becht would put him tied for sixth at even-par, while Leal was disqualified for a rules violation.

Becht finished the tournament tied for 10th with a 1-over score, the same score and placement as sophomore Eric McIntosh. Junior Everton Hawkins finished tied for 16th at 3-over and freshman David Nyfjäll concluded the tournament at 5-over, tied for 25th.

NU’s performance, especially on the third day, was a stark contrast to their execution last week at the Windon Memorial Classic. Coach David Inglis said he saw a big difference in how his team played.

“We came into the final round with an opportunity to win and we showed up on the last day,’ Inglis said. “Anytime you can do that, that’s really impressive and really encouraging to see your team show up on the final day like that. That bodes well for our chances at the end of the season.”

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