Men’s Golf

Just over two months ago, Northwestern boasted a No. 28 national ranking, standing at second in the Big Ten behind Purdue.

This No. 28 ranking dropped to No. 35 entering March and then tumbled all the way down to No. 48 following two middle-of-the-pack results at The Goodwin and the Augusta Haskins Invitational.

The Goodwin, played at Stanford on March 24 through 26, hosted 28 collegiate teams. The Wildcats placed last among the seven top-50 teams competing.

Overall, NU ended the three-day tournament tied for 10th place, finishing three strokes under par and 19 strokes behind team champion No. 9 Washington. The Cats remained in eighth place after both the first and second rounds, but fell to 10th after hitting three-over in round three.

However, this year’s result marked an improvement from last year’s performance in which the squad finished 13th.

Senior David Nyfjäll led the team with a three-round total of 205 (-5), carding a first round score of 66 (-4) and tying for 15th place. Last month, Nyfjäll was named Big Ten Golfer of the Week, his fourth career Golfer of the Week award and NU’s first since junior John Driscoll won the award April 2021.

Freshman Cameron Adam and junior James Imai both finished even par, tying for 40th place overall.

A week later, the Cats competed in the 15-team Augusta Haskins Award Invitational in Augusta, Georgia, where they faced six other top 50-teams, all of whom ranked higher.

The Cats’ performance in Augusta looked similar to their showing at The Goodwin. NU finished in seventh place after faltering in round three once again. The team sat in fifth place after two rounds but shot 12-over in the final round and fell to seventh.

Despite the similar result, different individual performances led the way for NU.

This time, the Cats were carried by Adam’s eight place finish out of 75 individual scores, hitting eight-under overall and five-under in the second round. No one else on the team scored better than 4-over for the tournament.

No. 12 Texas placed first with an impressive 50-under performance, 26 strokes below runner-up No. 2 Oklahoma State.

NU’s next tournament, the Kepler Intercollegiate in Columbus, Ohio, is more than two weeks away on April 23 and 24. This competition will mark the Cats’ final spring tournament before the Big Ten Championship from April 29 through May 1.

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