Ohio competed in its largest tournament of the season and placed in the middle of the pack.
Ohio might have momentum for the remainder of the season after playing the past three days at the Middleburg Bank Intercollegiate, where it finished tied for 16th out of the 30 teams.
The tournament, played in Williamsburg, Virginia, was double the size of most of the tournaments Ohio has competed in this year and featured tougher competition than what it’s used to seeing, as two Big Ten, two Southeastern Conference and an Atlantic Coastal Conference schools competed.
Sophomore Peyton White led the Bobcats’ final day, shooting 2-under par. That helped him jump 45 spots and finish the tournament tied for 29th out of the 150 golfers.
Junior Michael Engelman tied for 60th in his first appearance of the season as a member of the starting five, while senior Thomas Leech also made his season debut and finished tied for 81st.
Freshman Grant Engel and senior Andrew Mlynarski moved up the leaderboard on Tuesday to finish tied for 96th and 126th, respectively.
“We’re extremely happy with the direction that we’re going. This was a great step,” Mlynarski said. “We shot 295 (Tuesday), which is our lowest score of the season, so we’re definitely gonna ride that momentum into practice over the next two and a half weeks before our next tournament.”
The Bobcats completed their strong showing despite the team’s practice driving range still being closed and the golf course having opened only two days prior to the start of competition.
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Lack of practice time has been a key issue for the team this spring. The team has resorted to using Walter Fieldhouse to practicing driving lately.
“We were prepared after Spring Break and had a better finish than what we’ve been used to,” Leech said.
Ohio had never appeared in the Middleburg Bank Intercollegiate before competition began Sunday and hadn’t seen the course in person until Saturday’s practice round.
“It was a really good course, but it was really difficult for being a par 70,” Engelman said. “Usually, you think you’re gonna get some breaks and it’s gonna be shorter and pretty easy, but this one was 6,700 yards, and it was very demanding off the tee. The greens were pretty difficult as well.”
Ohio has two tournaments remaining before the Mid-American Conference Championships next month.
“I think playing in this tournament was a huge advantage because we finally saw some results, and people are going to be driven to work just a little bit harder,” Mlynarski said. “I definitely think it puts up nicely for the rest of the year.”
@Matt_Fout
mf056713@ohio.edu
