High winds hamper Eagles

Photo by: Henoc Kivuye

 

The men and women of the Eagles golf team battled through fierce winds and even fiercer competition this past week.

Seniors Morgan Dockery and Sarah Harper and junior Catherine Odgers represented the Lady Eagles at the unexpected Diffie Ford-Lincoln Invitational.

“It actually wasn’t originally on our schedule,” Harper said. “Coach signed us up last week; he felt like we had too much time in between tournaments and thought this would be good practice.”

Wind conditions factored into the performances of the Lady Eagles during both rounds, blowing between 25 and 35 miles per hour throughout.

Dockery ended her first round in the lead by four shots with a 72.  Harper closed out the top two spots for the Lady Eagles with her round score of 76.

Multiple athletes at the invitational succumbed to increased wind conditions during the second round.

“I wasn’t particularly happy with my performance,” Harper said. “I feel like there were a lot of small things I could have done differently to score better, but overall it was a fun time.”

Dockery shot an 84, giving her a total score of 156. While normally confident in her short game, Dockery hit a rough patch in the second round.

“The main thing I had trouble with was my putting,” Dockery said. “Part of it was just the speed of the greens, but I have been having some issues in the past few tournaments with it.”

Odgers finished two shots behind Dockery with round scores of 80 and 78. Harper finished her second round with an 85, for a total tournament score of 161.

Dockery, Odgers and Harper took the first, second and third overall placements for individual scoring in the Invitational.

“It felt really good to be able to place that high,” Dockery said. “I haven’t played as an individual for a while, and it feels good being able to get into a mindset of being able to focus on my own game.”

The men of the Eagles golf team competed on a course with a history of high caliber play.

Many professional players have teed off at the TPC Four Seasons during its annual hosting of the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson Championship.

Head coach David Lynn elaborated on the challenge the course would present.

“It is one of the more difficult courses on the PGA tour,” Lynn said. “It demands extreme precision for players to be even moderately effective during their rounds.”

Junior Jared Consoli and teammate senior Logan Herbst tied in both of their first two rounds.

They both made two over par with 73 during the first round, and one over with 72 after the second round.

Freshman Sam Johnston also remained close to his teammates in the rankings, posting round scores of 71 and 75, leaving him in seventh place going into the next day.

The Eagles went into day two of the tournament with an overall score of 594, putting them in second place behind Texas Wesleyan University.

Johnston managed to shoot a 79 through high winds and secured an individual sixth-place finish. He posted a final score of 225.

Herbst tied for seventh place with a round score of 81 and a final score of 226. Senior Vilhelm Bogstrand and sophomores Taylor Williams and Trey Payne also competed for the Eagles during the tournament.

Bogstrand shot a final round of 78 to end in 14th overall. Williams tied for 17th at 230, and Payne finished 50th with a final score of 242.

Consoli ended in 11th place with a final score of 227 after posting an 82 on Tuesday. However, his score was not reflected in the Eagles’ total, because he played the tournament as an individual.

Overall, the Eagles shot a team score of 316 to hold on to a second-place finish.

The women’s squad will play their next rounds in the Midwestern State International Tournament on March 18. The men’s squad will participate in the Lions Classic in Arkansas starting March 25.