The men’s and women’s golf teams travelled to Carmel, Ind. on Tuesday to play in the Big Four Classic at Crooked Stick Golf Club.
The men finished the day off in second place, shooting a collective score of 318 (+30), and the women finished off the day in third place, shooting a collective score of 350 (+62). Of the four the teams that participated in the tournament, Butler finished in first place in both the men’s and women’s division. The Butler men shot a 294 (+6) for the day and the Butler women shot a 319 (+31).
The individual performances of sophomores Jackson Mihevic and Andrew Derringer and junior Sean Steinman led the men's team. Mihevic shot a 77, which put him in a tie for sixth, Steinman shot a 78 which gave him sole possession of eighth place and Derringer capped it off with a 79 to finish in a tie for ninth place.
The ladies were led by the individual performances of first-year Larisa Luloff and junior Kenzlie Westerfield, who both shot 86’s for the round. Another first-year, Danielle Smith, followed them up with an 88. Luloff and Westerfield finished in a tie for ninth place and Smith earned 12th place.
Although the men were able to lock up a second-place finish, Steinman said the course was playing fairly difficult, and he believes that was a major factor in the team's unusually high score.
“The team didn’t finish as well as we’d hoped for,” Steinman said. “It was a really hard course. The greens were ridiculously hard and balls were just bouncing off like trampolines, so the scores were a little bit higher than we wanted.”
The men are heading into the final stretch of their season and Derringer believes they are looking good.
“I think at this point we’re in a good spot. We’re still trying to figure out our lineup," he said. "We’ve definitely got a bunch of talent on the team and guys who can be switched out. People can be switched in and out without having a huge fluctuation in team score, so right now I think our team’s in a good place talent-wise with the numbers we’re putting up.”
Based off of what he’s seen during the spring season, Steinman is also extremely optimistic about the rest of the season moving forward.
“Statistic-wise I think we have one of the best teams in DePauw history. We’re just consistently throwing up better scores than I’ve seen last year or even my freshman year. We have more guys on the team this year that can shoot under 78 than we’ve ever had before," Steinman said. "As a team, we’re playing better than we ever did in the fall so in terms of going into conference, so I have extremely high hopes for the team.”
For the ladies, it’s a bit of a different story. Luloff confessed that they haven’t been playing as well as they’ve wanted to, and that it’s hurting their chances of moving into the postseason.
“We had to beat Hanover basically so we could get a bid to nationals because we ended up dropping in the rankings," she said. "I know we have an even smaller chance of getting there now unless we win conference.”
The women will get their final shot at competition play before conference next Saturday when they travel to Normal, Ill., to play in the Illinois Wesleyan Kathy Niepagen Spring Fling at Ironwood G.C. On the flip side, the men will play their final competition round before conference this weekend in the Ted Barclay Invitational at Denison G.C in Granville, Ohio.