In the first tournament and multi-day event for Bradley men’s golf this season, inconsistency between rounds doomed the Braves, who finished 17th of 18th on Tuesday afternoon.
“[The tournament] was okay, we kind of just ran right out of the gate and just tried to do too much,” head coach Jeff Roche said.
The team’s lineup of five consisted of freshman Josh Kirkham, graduate Alex Ciaramitaro, freshman John Stillman, junior Jalen Hodges and freshman Nick Armbrust. Winds around 20 MPH were the norm during the tournament, which also went well into the dark the first day.
Hodges was the lone Brave under par after the first round, sinking two birdies and seven pars on the back nine. Overall, the Braves struggled to get going with a four-man score of +22, much of which came from the second half of the round.
“First day I think I just hit a lot of fairways and greens quickly and it kind of got me on a roll,” Hodges said. “I didn’t do anything really crazy and so that helped me stay in it the whole day and the scores just came along.”
In round two, Ciaramitaro led a nice overall rebound by the Braves by shooting two-under-par and helping the team finish +7, climbing them to 14th overall after the first day.
When the third round started Tuesday morning, the Braves were hoping to see a similar effort from round two. Instead, they saw a repeat of round one. It was Kirkham leading the charge this time, as he ended the final round shooting two-over-par. The Braves ended the tournament in 17th with a team score of 906 (+54).
“I really liked how we started [in the second round] because that first round wasn’t great, and so instead of trying to do too much too fast, we didn’t force anything and it allowed us to create some momentum that carried all the way through that second round,” Roche said.
It wasn’t the result Roche wanted to see, but having three different players lead the team in each round can create confidence.
“I think we are really close to getting some good scores together, we just have to relax and stay patient,” Hodges said.
A week from today, the Braves face a matchup against the DePaul Blue Demons in a match at Ruffled Feathers golf club in Lemont.
