Men's golf team takes fourth place
Sophomores Peter Malnati and John Kelly finished in the top five.
Published Sept. 19, 2006
Even with a fourth-place finish and two MU golfers ranking among the top five at last weekend's Wolverine Intercollegiate in Ann Arbor, Mich., the MU men's golf team is looking to step up its team game.
Sophomore Peter Malnati and senior John Kelly both finished the tournament in the top five.
Malnati took fourth place with a total of 211, or 2 under par. Kelly tied for fifth, with a score of 212, for one under par.
But the Tigers are not yet focusing on playing team golf because the rest of the team finished in the bottom half of the pool.
Rounding out the Tigers' scores were sophomore Kyle Marcolla, who tied for 41st place with sophomore Ryne Fisher, and senior Chris Zeller, who tied for 63rd place.
"If one of those guys on the back end had played a little bit better, we probably would have had a really good chance to win," coach Mark Leroux said. "Ryne Fisher stood up at the team meeting on Saturday and said he let the guys down and he was going to play better, and sure enough he did. His last round was our lowest for that day."
Fisher shot a 71 on Sunday to finish the tournament with a score of 221.
Most staggering about the team's finish in Ann Arbor is the improvement from the team's first meet, in which it finished 11th out of 13 teams.
"We definitely made a marked improvement this week," Kelly said. "We had some success obviously, with Peter and I. We're headed in the right direction, I think."
Kelly said another reason for the drastic improvement was that the 14 teams playing in the Wolverine Intercollegiate didn't pose as big of a challenge as the previous week's competition.
"It wasn't as good a field," Kelly said. "The course was a lot easier. I didn't necessarily hit it better than the last tournament, but I didn't really penalize bad shots as much as the course before."
Overall, MU's top finishers in the tournament felt their putting had room for improvement.
"I didn't putt extremely all that well," Kelly said. "The greens were a little poor, but when it all comes down to it, its me missing the putts."
Malnati also had trouble putting during the tournament.
"It had rained a lot, and the greens were really soft and bumpy, so it was difficult to putt," Malnati said. "Even so, I did not putt well."
Malnati's fourth-place finish is an impressive comeback from his finish in the Tigers' first meet, in which he placed 50th.
"This is what I expect, not last week." Malnati said. "I've worked hard enough that I should be finishing in the top of the field."
The team still is not satisfied with its improvement, despite the difference in scores from the opening tournament.
"It's something to build on." Malnati said. "I don't think by any means it's a peak."
This weekend, the team is headed to Albuquerque, N.M., for the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, Sept. 22-23, which provides another opportunity for the Tigers to measure their progress.
"There are going to be some really good teams at New Mexico," Leroux said. "We feel like we can compete with them. We have the talent to win that golf tournament."
