Most would think that a college golf invitational would be held at the nearest course to that college or university. But if the college is located in Southeast Wisconsin and it’s the middle of March, that might not be the best option. So, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside moved their invitational to the par 36 Otter Creek Golf Course in Columbus, Ind. in hopes of better course conditions. Unfortunately for the teams, moving the event 288 miles south and two states over still wasn’t enough to play a full 36-hole competition.

The final nine holes of the invitational were canceled due to snow on Sunday, March 27 and in anticipation of the weather 27 holes were played on Saturday instead of the typical 18 each day. Golfers played in 30-degree weather and high winds, making a tough return to the links for the 11-team field.

“Golf is a warm-weather game and needs repetition and we didn’t really have either,” said NMU head coach Dean Ellis.

Northern Michigan finished in eighth with 507 combined strokes between the five scoring golfers. Leading the way for the Wildcats was junior Tony Bilich who finished 10 over par at 118. The top ’Cat tied with two members of the second-place Northwood team for the 10th spot, six strokes off the lead.

“As the day went on I felt better with my game and started rolling the putter better,” Bilich said. “I don’t worry about my position too much, I just try to go as low as I possibly can and minimize my bad holes.”

Freshman Mike Murphy was the second Wildcat on the leaderboard, taking 38th overall with a 126 for +18, Joe Hansen and Adam Huss tied for 48th with a +25, 133 and Jared Reid ended the scoring with 134 strokes.

This was the first competition for the team since the GLIAC championship in Detroit on Oct. 3, 2010. While Ellis said it was tough to get an evaluation of the team due to the difficult weather situation, Bilich was able to analyze his performance without the typical pressures of a mid-season competition.

“I hit the ball well but the short game was really rusty. I couldn’t get the speed of the greens down, so I lost a lot of strokes around the greens,” Bilich said. “I didn’t have high expectations going into my first golf rounds of the season; I just wanted to enjoy seeing green grass for a change.”

Up next for the team is the second of three NCAA regionals, this one in Georgetown, Kent. NMU finished 22 of 23 teams competing in the Sept. 20-21 regional, but defeated some of those opposing teams at later events in the season.

“We finished near the bottom last time, but this is the second of three events, so we’re going to be consistent and move up the rankings,” Ellis said.