UW-Eau Claire finished 51 strokes over par to grab a tie for fourth place with Saint John’s University’s first team at The Augsburg Fall Invitational in Ham Lake, Minn.

Gustavus Adolphus College’s (Minn.) first team won the event with a pus 35 score. Saint John’s University first team was three strokes behind them. Finishing in third was the University of Saint Thomas at 40 over par.

The team was able to move up six spots from Saturday to Sunday, but this didn’t change Coach Maguire’s blunt assessment of the team.

“I don’t think they played very well compared to what they are capable of,” he said. “Fourth place isn’t too bad considering how poor they played.”

He did stress that the team tried their best and can do better, but this weekend they just couldn’t get it done.

The course they played on was 6869 yards and senior Ryan Grip said that it provided some trouble.

“The course was kind of tricked-up, meaning the pins were set in some spots that were pretty difficult,” he said.

He also felt that the course was in rougher shape due to the amount of people who play on it.

Maguire agreed with Grip’s opinion on the holes’ placement and said that the whole positions were on one end of the green on Saturday then the other end on Sunday.

The individual winner was Simon Eriandsson of Gustavus’s second team. He shot two under par for the tournament.

On an individual level, the Blugolds placed between 11th and 50th with scores ranging from plus 10 to plus 18.

Senior Loren Churness was the highest finishing Blugold and shot +10 on the weekend. He ended up tied for 11th with fellow Blugold junior Nick Weber and Toby Robinson of Bethel University (Minn.).

Maguire feels that the team can improve with more practice.

“They just recently have come into some technical issues that affect the way they play,” Maguire said. “If we can iron those out this week, we’ll be good to go for next week.”

Grip, who was the highest scoring Blugold for the weekend at plus 18 explained his difficulties.

“My short game was pretty poor,” he said. “I definitely threw away a lot of shots around the green.”

To improve his short game, Grip feels that he just needs to practice more.

The team travels to Sartell, Minn. on Sept. 19 to compete in the Saint John’s Fall invitational.

Though Grip thinks that the team’s performance was poor this week, it doesn’t change his view of the season.

“I think all of the guys on the team really want to prove ourselves as one of the best teams in our region.”