The Bobcats were relieved to have freshman Grant Engel in action at the Firestone Invitational despite the team’s poor performance. Ohio finished last with a score of 915, which was 51 shots over par. However, Engel, in his second collegiate tournament, tied for 5th place out of the 93 total competitors.
“I’m very happy with my performance,” Engel said. “I came into it with a goal of the top 20. After the first day I was 28th and I was content with that, but to come in fifth of 93 players, for me that’s huge.”
Engel attributed his second-day jump to hitting fairways and putting.
“(Monday) I was kind of all over the place, my drives weren’t really hitting the fairways or I wasn’t in positions to capitalize on the second shot,” Engel said.
Unfortunately, the freshman’s performance was the only positive from the tournament. The rest of the team struggled to find anything good to report on their play.
Sophomore Peyton White, who finished tied for 59th, didn’t have anything to say about the team’s performance other than, “Grant played great.”
White wasn’t the only team member unhappy with the result. Senior Andrew Mlynarski, who finished in 87th place, expressed disappointment.
“Today was rough. I can’t give you anything positive that I could take away from this,” Mlynarski said.
Even with his strong efforts, Engel acknowledged the team’s poor result.
“I think the guys will tell you this is one of the worst performances they’ve ever encountered. None of them played anywhere near their level of expectation and I think that shows in our result,” Engel said. “At every tournament you’re gonna have one guy who has an off-day, but it just happened to be at this tournament everyone had an off day.”
The Bobcats are ready to shift the focus to the next tournament. Ohio will play in the Pinetree Intercollegiate on Oct. 20 in Kennesaw, Georgia.
The shift south is something Mlynarski looks forward to because he lived in Florida this summer and became accustomed to the playing surface.
“Our next two tournaments are in Georgia and Florida, and they’ll have the same style of grass I’m really used to, so that’ll be a huge advantage for me,” Mlynarski said.
mf056713@ohio.edu
