This past weekend, men's and women’s golf looked to finish strong in their return to the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship—Event 2 in Springfield, Ohio.
The men’s team did just that, shooting a two-round 602 and finishing fifth out of nine teams.
“We saved our best tournament for last,” said senior Ty Frost, who shot a 152 over the two-day tournament. “What differentiated this tournament from the others we’ve played in…was that we all played well on the same day.”
The Tigers were led by first-year Andrew Derringer, who finished the weekend with a 149, earning him all-NCAC Second Team honors.
“When conference started, I was not expecting to make the second all-NCAC team,” Derringer said. “It was a bonus to play well at a convenient time in the year.”
The scores of this weekend’s tournament were combined with last weekend’s play in the “first championship event”. Hosts Wittenberg University proved to be the overall winner with a score of 1162. Kenyon College (1186) placed second, followed by Allegheny College (1205), Denison University (1218) and DePauw University (1227).
For the most part, the playing conditions had little effect on DePauw’s performance.
“The course was not playing difficult by any means but the wind on the first and second days made scoring a little tougher,” Derringer said. “[But] we had been playing in heavy winds all year, so it was not a new experience.”
However, the biggest challenge for the Tigers came on the greens.
“Though fairly short, the greens are easily the toughest we play on all year,” Frost said. “In the past, it has really frustrated our team and led to high scores.”
Sophomore Quinn Smith agreed.
“[There was a lot of] insulation and [it was] hard to control speed on some putts,” said Smith, who shot a 156 over the weekend. “If a player was putting well, they were going to score well. That is why we played decently well. The team putt[ed] solidly overall.”
Last season saw the women’s team winning the tournament and advancing to the NCAA Division III Championships. While the Tigers weren’t able to repeat, they still finished with strong performances, tying Denison for second with an overall score of 670 for the weekend. Wittenberg (620) finished first.
“It was disappointing…because we didn’t make it to Nationals,” said first-year Kharissa Carras. “But…we all came together as a team and gave it our best anyways. We never gave up.”
First-year Emily Galloway also noticed the team’s grit throughout the weekend.
“The team gave a really good effort, especially given the difficult course,” Galloway, who shot an 85 and 89, said. “Along with [Springfield Country Club] being the nicest course, it is also notably the hardest course that we play all season.”
The women’s team had similar problems to the men’s team when it came to the greens.
“Donald Ross, who designed the course, is known for his difficult greens, and this course [was] no exception,” Galloway said. “It was not uncommon to see a ball hit front of the green and roll back down to the bottom as well as players putting the ball right off the green.”
Despite the constant battle with the greens, the Tigers had three individuals earn all-NCAC honors in Carras (all-NCAC first team) and sophomores Alexandria Ramirez and Sheinnera Gerongay (all-NCAC second team).
The Tigers will look to build off of this year’s disappointing finish to return where they were a year ago.
“I want to win,” said Carras. “Losing…is never fun and I think this really motivated us to try and do better next year, and to practice harder, and…over the summer, just keep working on everything so that next year we don’t have to lose again.