Men’s Golf finishes sixth in Purgatory Invitational

March 29 2018
Last weekend, the Wheaton Men’s Golf team competed in the Taylor University Purgatory Invitational. The team finished sixth place overall.
Due to weather conditions, the invite was moved up and Thursday’s first round was brought to an early end due to darkness. The first round was completed on Friday, March 23 as well as the entirety of the second round.
“The tournament was originally scheduled for Friday-Saturday but was moved to Thursday-Friday due to weather, so one of our key players was unable to compete,” junior Drew Engelking said. “We are overall pleased with the performance and put up some good scores in some windy and frigid conditions.”
Wheaton shot a 312 after the first round and brought their score down to 301 at the conclusion of the second round. At the end of both rounds, Wheaton’s cumulative score was 613.
“Improvement can be made in consistency and performing well in poor weather as difficult conditions are to be expected throughout the season,” Engelking said.
Engelking was Wheaton’s top performer of the invite, as he finished six-over par in the first round and shot an even-par second round. Senior Adam Eaton was three-over par after the first round and five-over par at the end of the second. Senior Micah Dworak concluded the invite with a score of 155, 11-over par. Sophomore Joshua Chung finished one-shot behind his team at 156, and sophomore Jabe Gonder was the final scorer for Wheaton, carding a 165.
“We are looking forward to having our full roster back for the next event and competing with teams who we will have to beat in order to make the postseason,” Engelking said.
The Men’s Golf team from Indian Hills Community College finished with the lowest two-round score of 560, 16-under par. The host team, Taylor University, finished in second place, carding 577, and Cardinal Stritch University finished in third place with a score of 593. Engelking referred to the teams at the Taylor Invite as “some of the best competition they will face all year.”
The Thunder Men’s Golf spring season has been underway since the first week of March. They opened their season at the Arizona Spring Invitational during their spring break trip to Arizona.
“We started this season with a fun and productive spring break golf trip in Scottsdale where we were able to continue the progress we have made over the offseason,” Engelking said.
At the Arizona Spring Invitational, Wheaton placed third overall. Dworak earned individual medalist honors when he carded an even-par round of 72 and a one-shot victory.
Eaton was two strokes back of his teammate and finished third by carding 74. Engelking shot a 76, freshman Cooper Williamson an 83 and senior Luke Grogger a 93 to finish out the team scorers. Gonder, Meyer and Chung competed as individuals at this invitational and shot an 84, 86 and 89 respectively.
“Our goals are to win tournaments and be in position to make a championship run at conference,” Engelking said. “We have a solid team this season and will have success if we work hard and have a few things bounce our way.”
The Wheaton Men’s Golf team will return to action on April 6-7 for the Illinois Wesleyan Spring Invitational at Ironwood Golf Course in Bloomington, Ill. “We are looking forwarding to competing with IWU as we have a very talented team this year,” Engelking said. The IWU Invite will open the spring CCIW competition for the Thunder.
“Winning our conference means an automatic bid to the NCAA DIII National Championships, and historically the team to beat in our conference is Illinois Wesleyan U,” Engelking said.
Last year, the Thunder finished fourth overall at the CCIW Men’s Golf Championship, while the team from IWU were the 2017-18 CCIW Champions.