Curtis Meyer reporter
The Gorillas golf team is officially done for the semester after participating in the Washburn Invitational this past Monday and Tuesday. The previous week saw the Gorillas finish fourth at the Newman Invitational. However, the Gorillas couldn’t keep up that level of play early on Monday. The Missouri Western Griffons would claim the title with a team score of plus 1, while the Gorillas would sit with a team score of plus 37.
Although the team had a rough start, the Gorillas ultimately climbed up two spots and placed 11th out of the 15 participating teams.
“I felt that we got off to a slow start Monday. The first round didn’t go quite as well as we wanted or anticipated,” head coach Nick Long said, “But I felt like the guys put up a really good fight in the second round yesterday and we were able to make a nice little comeback. They played better Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.”
Junior Mason White was the highest placing player for the Gorillas. White made an impressive advancement of 20 spots from the previous afternoon and ultimately finished 23rd overall with a plus six.
Freshman Tyler Hardtarfer similarly advanced 12 spots from the afternoon prior, finishing at 43rd overall with a plus 11 score.
Rounding out the Gorillas was sophomore Keaton Thissen, placing 49th overall with a score of plus 12.
“Tuesday, we were really close to having a fantastic day, just came up a little short from a really good finish. But all in all, I felt pretty pleased,” Long said.
Pitt State Golf finished their spring semester with no player ranking lower than 14th place during their first competition (The Mule.) Their best performance came out of the Newman Invitational with a solid fourth place finish. This shows some improvement for Pitt State, along with plenty of room for more as they prepare for the Spring Slate of play.
“We definitely have grown. I think that some of my athletes have learned some things about themselves, things they may not have known before; namely, that they can compete at this level consistently. They probably haven’t met the goals they set for themselves, nor have they met the goals for the team, but those goals are season long- not just semester. That’s one of the beauties of golf, we have two different seasons,” Long said.
Pitt State Golf will take this semester’s lessons to heart as they look ahead to next semester. Pitt State will take the course again on March 3rd in Fort Smith, Arkansas where they will compete in the UAFS Hardscrabble.
“Our team goals will always be the same: We want to be competitive in every tournament and competitive in our conference. We want to make sure that we position ourselves for postseason play. Team goals probably won’t change but we may change our individual goals and make them a little bit tougher to achieve. That’s simply because I believe that my guys can go out there and achieve a little bit of a standard for themselves than what we thought initially,” Long said.