EAGLE, Neb. – It was a difficult 36 holes of GPAC action for the Concordia University men’s golf team on Monday. The Bulldogs entered the conference spring championships in third place and seven strokes behind the leader. However, they have slipped back to seventh after turning in team totals of 343 and 324 on a blustery day at Woodland Hills Golf Club in Eagle, Neb.
Head coach Brett Muller’s squad now owns a three-round score of 300-343-324–967 with one round remaining in the 2016-17 season. Concordia sported an average team score of 304.1 coming into the week.
“We just didn’t have in the low 70s which we’ve had all year,” Muller said. “Obviously the conditions were extremely tough today, but they were tough for everybody. We just didn’t do a good enough job adjusting to the day.”
Freshman Tylar Samek handled the conditions the best, carding rounds of 81 and 77 on Monday. He’s still within range of an all-conference finish (top 10 are automatic). He’s currently tied for 13th with a cumulative score of 73-83-79–235. The three other Bulldogs that qualify on the overall leaderboard are Nolan Zikas (76-91-79–246, T-27th), Jared Knoepfel (84-82-85–251, T-30th) and Russell Otten (77-92-85-254, 36th). Tyler Ehresman joined the fray on Monday and turned an 87-81–168.
Concordia will attempt to rebound on Tuesday when they return to Woodland Hills for the fourth and final round of the GPAC championships. The action is set to get underway at 9 a.m. CT. The GPAC will have live scoring available HERE.
“We played a little better on the second 18 today,” Muller said. “We need to go out and put up a low score and hopefully move up. We’ve played well at times this semester and want to finish on a high note.”