The men’s golf team competed at the Boilermaker Invitational at Purdue University this weekend.

The Huskies had a disappointing tournament, finishing in 16th place out of 18 after shooting 70 over par for the weekend. The main reason for the disappointing finish was the Huskies’ inability to start rounds well.

“Today we shot 28 over par as a team, and after the first three holes I think we were 15 or 16 over par,” said head coach Tom Porten. “We really need to address the start of our rounds and getting out to a faster start.”

Although the final results for the team weren’t ideal, Porten was impressed by the play of his players, mainly the play of seniors Griffin Bauman and Bryce Emory.

“Griffin played really well the last two rounds, and Bryce played really well the first two rounds,” Porten said. “I was pleased to see them continue to play good golf against some of the top schools in the Big Ten.”

Emory had the lowest three-round score for the Huskies, primarily because of his first two rounds of play. Emory’s first-round 75 made him the only Huskie to tally a round total fewer than 80 for the first round. His second-round 69 was the lowest individual round of any Huskie for the tournament, and had him sitting in eighth place going into the final round. After shooting a final-round 79 Emory fell all the way to 24th out of 93 to finish the tournament.

Bauman also played well for the Huskies after tallying a one over par 73 in each of the last two rounds of competition. Bauman’s game was hindered by a first-round score of 81, which landed his final score at an 11 over par 227, good for 37th place out of 93.

The Huskies were faced with an unexpected complication when sophomore Nick Schiavi was forced to withdraw in the third round due to a back injury. The injury to Schiavi placed additional pressure on the team to play well on Sunday.

“In college golf you have five players and you count the scores of four of them, so you throw one score out,” Porton said. “When one of our Huskies goes down it forces the other four guys to play well. Whatever happens in their round, good or bad, their score is going to count.”

The combination of bad starts and unexpected injuries led the Huskies to a disappointing finish in their final regular season tournament. The Huskies will look for better starts as they prepare for the MAC Championship on May 3.