Men’s Golf Struggles in Southwest

Team places 12th out of 15 teams in ArizonaAddy Camisa The Santa ClaraMarch 1, 2018The Santa Clara Men’s Golf team finished 12th overall this weekend at the National Invitational Tournament hosted by the University of Arizona. Hayden Shieh, Matthew McCarty, Derek Ackerman, Michiel Eyre III and William DelBiaggio represented the Santa Clara team, currently ranked 35th by Golfstat.The team competed with 15 other groups at the tournament hosted at the par72 Omni Tucson Catalina Course.To par, the Santa Clara team finished even with 72 strokes—just two strokes behind the University of Wyoming.The group fell behind in the first round, finishing 25 strokes from the lead, but improved their scores in the two following rounds.“In the first round, we really struggled from the beginning,” Head Coach Robert Miller said. “None of the guys were really feeling comfortable with their games and the course and it started off poorly. We were never really able to gain a lot of momentum.”After the first 18 holes of the first round, the team carded 292 overall. In the second round, they carded 283. In the final and third round, they carded 289. The Santa Clara team totaled out to an even-par 864.“In the second two rounds, we had gotten off to very good starts,” Miller said. “In the last three or four holes, we finished poorly. The difference between the first round and the second two rounds is that the first round really was one where none of the guys played particularly well.”In individual play, Shieh finished with 70 strokes, two under par, with the help of two eagles. He tied for 28th place in the tournament.DelBiaggio finished even with 72 strokes.Ackerman finished three strokes over par with a 75. Ackerman and DelBiaggio tied with four other golfers for 43rd place in the tournament. McCarty finished three strokes over par with a 75 with the help of an eagle in the second round. He tied for 61st place. Eyre III finished with a 77, five over par.Coach Miller said that moving forward, they will focus on preparing particular members who have consistently qualified for meets in the past for the remaining meets.“Individually, we’re kind of going through and trying to identify what the best practice and playing combinations will be for them to prepare as best they can for these last four events,” Miller said. “We’re going to focus, for three guys in particular, on trying to get them ready in whatever way is best for each one of them separately.”The team’s performance this weekend follows their play in the Farms Invitational in San Francisco, where McCarty received individual medalist honors for finishing under-par on all three rounds. Eyre III received his fourth career Top-10 finish.“This week, we chalked this up to one of the events out of the 11 that we play, of our season, where it was just a down event,” Miller said. “I don’t think there’s any takeaway from that, just that you have to understand that you’re going to have some down events and you’re going to have some good events.”The Santa Clara team will play in the Bandon Dunes Championship in Bandon, Oregon on Sunday, March 11.Contact Addy Camisa at acamisa@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.