SIOUX CITY, Iowa – For the fourth time this season, the Concordia University men’s golf team turned in a round of lower than 300. With a 296 at Wednesday’s opening round of the Briar Cliff University Invitational, the Bulldogs will enter day two with a third-place standing out of the 12 teams in the field at Green Valley Golf Course in Sioux City, Iowa.
Head coach Brett Muller’s squad came into the week with a team season average of 304.0. Concordia is seeking its third top-three tournament finish of 2016-17.
Individually, junior Russell Otten and sophomore Nolan Zikas are chasing second top 10 placements in a row. They are tied for sixth on the leaderboard with identical even-par 72 totals. Otten turned in five birdies (tied for the most in the field). The rest of the five-member team included freshman Tylar Samek (76, T-23rd), senior Jared Knoepfel (76, T-23rd) and freshman Tyler Knoepfel (80, T-47th).
Muller also traveled three individuals to the event: junior Tyler Ehresman (78, T-31st) and freshmen Noah Rohlfing (79, T-38th) and Grant Suchanek (83, T-53rd). There were 72 total golfers that took the course on Wednesday.
Prior to Wednesday, Concordia golfers had combined for seven rounds of even par or better during this academic year. Zikas has four such rounds and Otten has three. Both Zikas (75.7) and Otten (76.6) came in well below their season averages on day one of the Briar Cliff Invite.
Action at Green Valley is set to resume at 9 a.m. CT on Thursday. The Bulldogs are eight strokes behind second place Morningside (288) and 10 strokes in back of first place Northwestern (286).