ELKHORN, Neb. – The 2021 GPAC Championships have started encouragingly for Concordia University Men’s Golf, which carded a 298 (currently in fourth place) at Indian Creek Golf Course in Elkhorn, Neb., on Monday. The 11-team GPAC field is halfway through the fall portion of the conference tournament, which will pick back up on Tuesday morning. Individually, Ivan Yabut continued a strong fall by turning in the team low score of one-under-par 71.
The 298 carded by Head Coach Brett Muller’s squad on Monday represents the program’s best GPAC tournament round since the 295 that was posted in conference championship round two in the fall of 2017. The Bulldogs sit eight strokes out of second place and one off of third place. In addition, Briar Cliff (300) and Doane (301) are right on Concordia’s heels.
Yabut has been neck-and-neck this fall with Drew D’Ercole for the top scoring average on the team. Yabut’s 71 in round one puts him in a tie for sixth, three strokes out of first place. Coming in next, Jack Williams enjoyed a breakthrough with a 74 (+2) that positions him just outside of the top 10 on the individual leaderboard. The Bulldog group of five was rounded out by Jake Hagerbaumer (76), D’Ercole (77) and Justin Webert (81). D’Ercole earned Honorable Mention All-GPAC honors last season.
Concordia began the day knowing it has the ability to improve upon last season’s ninth place GPAC finish. During the 2020-21 season, the Bulldogs posted a conference total of 342-330-315-321–1,308. So far this fall, Concordia’s varsity lineup has recorded scores of 304 or lower in all seven rounds. A season low of 291 was turned in at the Siouxland Invite.
Round two is slated to tee off from Indian Creek at 10 a.m. CT on Tuesday. Check the GPAC website for pairings heading into day two. Live results can be followed throughout the GPAC tournament via Golf Genius (downloadable phone app). Access the tournament by using the Golf Genius ID of 2122MGPAC.