On April 1-2 the Eau Claire Men’s golf team traveled to Normal, Illinois to compete in the Illinois Wesleyan Invitational. Twenty-five teams were in attendance including UW-Eau Claire. Hosted at the Ironwood golf course, the course ranged to 6901 yards, had a par 72 and eighteen holes.

This tournament is the first of the Blugolds and according to fourth-year Cole Jahnke, it’s the “biggest” as well. 

“It’s our first and unfortunately our biggest tournament of the year which is not a great thing for us since we don’t get outside much prior to this tournament so we don’t have the reps some of the other teams do,” Jahnke said. 

Both Head Coach Darrin Skinner and Jahnke said the team had to battle against less than ideal weather conditions but surprisingly led the players’ scores to be better than normal. 

“Bloomington had two and a half inches of rain Wednesday so the greens weren’t as fast or firm as they usually are which made scores a little bit better than they typically are for this tournament,” Skinner said. 

Skinner also said his golfers played in sleet during practice and faced high-speed winds up to thirty miles an hour. 

In the first round, Jahnke shot two strokes under par resulting in 70 and in the second round he was just four strokes over par giving him 76. This brought his total score for the weekend to 146. 

“We got there a day early which was nice. We got to get used to the green speeds a little bit, Jahnke said. “I wouldn’t say they were necessarily slow, they were wet, they did get a little bit of rain the day before we got there. It does affect your game but you have to account for that.” 

Not far behind Jahnke were his four fellow teammates. Second-year Corey Boerner shot a 152 after the two rounds of play, just behind Boerner was first-year Nick Amtman with a 154, third-year Connor Brown received a 158 and first-year Fred Moede finished with a 165. 

According to the Illinois Wesleyan Invitational Website, the Blugolds finished the tournament in sixth place out of the 25 other teams. The men’s team also shot a total of 105 pars and 14 birdies, and teammate Jahnke was tied for fifth overall out of 131 other competitors.  

“The younger players were given a chance to learn to grow, to be patient, to keep fighting and also learn to be smart enough to stay warm, to have energy and to focus throughout,” Skinner said. 

In the upcoming schedule, the Men’s golf team will participate in the Augustana Invite on Friday, April 8.  

Dutton can be reached at duttonmm[email protected]