The Northern Michigan University men’s golf team wrapped up the GLIAC North Invitational on Sunday, Sept. 22 at HawksHead Golf Course in South Haven, Mich., placing thirteenth.
The ’Cats finished their debut at the North Invitational, which hosted 14 teams over the course of a three day tournament. In the two-day event, the ’Cats rallied 627 points in total to fall behind first place Saginaw Valley State, who won the invite with a two-over par score of 578.
Malone University (585), Tiffin University (589), the University of Findlay (591) and Grand Valley State University (592) all finished in the top five spots at the tournament.The ’Cats seniors Mike Murphy and Jared Reid led
Michigan University’s team with identical scores of 154. The scores tied the men for 49th place overall.
Murphy shot a pair of 77s on his scorecard, while Reid tailed 79 on Saturday and came out with a team’s best of 75 on Sunday.Murphy said the golf program has exceeding potential this season, and consistency is key for every hole.
“The goal is always to win the tournaments,” Murphy said. “I feel as though we have the potential to play good golf and to be competitive. It all depends on us consistently posting good rounds and keeping our bad rounds to as low of a score as possible.”
Last season, the ’Cats finished in 14th place out of 16 teams at the fall event at HawksHead Golf Course. The ’Cats recorded a score of 638 points, improving this year by eleven fewer points.Northern Michigan University sophomore Aryton Mantha said it was not the best tournament for the Wildcats, but said the team looks to improve as the season plays out.
“It didn’t go as well as we wanted,” Mantha said. “That’s just the way golf is sometimes.”Mantha scored a 160 in the two-day GLIAC North Invitational tournament.“I feel we have a solid team,” Mantha said. “We just all need to be able to put together two solid rounds to be able to compete against such strong teams in our conference.”
Mantha also said he has high goals for the men this season. “As a team, I would like to see us competing at the Super Regionals during the spring,” Mantha said.The ’Cats look to bounce back from the weekend with the upcoming tournament at the NCAA Regional I at Harborside International Saturday, Sept. 28 in Calumet City, Ill.
