In a crowded 24-team field loaded with elite talent at The Prestige at PGA West in La Quinta, California, Northwestern found itself near the bottom of the totem pole, finishing 17th with a score of 6-over par. 

The highly decorated tournament, which spanned from Feb. 19 to the 21st, saw Texas Tech take home the hardware by a staggering 12 strokes, ending 33-under par.

While the Wildcats couldn’t achieve nearly the same team success as the Red Raiders, NU saw a few tremendous individual performances.

Among those players was graduate student James Imai, who was one of the tournament’s best players, tying with three other golfers for 11th place at the 6-under par.

The graduate student had a strong start to the tournament in the first two days, shooting consecutive 1-under rounds on the Greg Norman Course. However, in the third round, Imai really hit his stride, shooting a 4-under par — and tied for the 6th best score on the final day.

Freshman Niall Shiels-Donegan finished the tournament with a 1-under-par score in his native state of California.

Shiels-Donegan rebounded nicely from a rocky start after shooting 2-over par on the tournament’s first day. The freshman showcased his prowess in the second round, shooting 2-under par, and then followed up with another excellent outing on the third day with a score of 1-under par.

The ’Cats will look to bounce back from their rough showing on the West Coast on March 4th, when they will travel to Pinehurst, North Carolina for the two-day Wake Forest Invitational.

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Twitter: @JacobKHare

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