A tough course and extreme winds caused problems for all 18 teams in the Midwest Regional on Monday and Tuesday at Fox Run Golf Club in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Hillsdale College men's golf team was no exception.
The Chargers managed to battle through the difficult conditions to stay in contention throughout all three rounds and bring home a seventh place finish against some of the best teams the Midwest Region has to offer.
After an opening-round 302 on Monday, Hillsdale actually led the tournament by a stroke over conference rival Trevecca Nazarene, and even after a second-round 307, the Chargers were still within four strokes of the lead entering Tuesday's final round.
But although the Chargers shot a solid 304 given the conditions in that final rounds, Hillsdale never quite put it all together to keep pace with eventual champion McKendree and runner-up Southern Indiana, whose final round scores of 286 and 293 were among just four sub-300 stroke rounds in the entire event across all teams.
Individually, freshman Oscar Darlington was solid throughout all three rounds, shooting a 73-77-74-224 to lead the Chargers and post his second-straight top 10 finish for Hillsdale, tying for eighth place.
Another freshman, Filippo Reale, also impressed for the Chargers, improving his score every round and finishing with a 78-76-75-229 and his best finish in a tournament to date, tying for 19th overall.
Junior Gerry Jones Jr. was near the top of the leaderboard for most of the first two rounds with scores of 74 and 76 for the Chargers, but couldn't overcome two early double bogeys in the final round and settled for a tie for 25th place with a total score of 230, while senior Josh Davenport shot a 77-78-77-232 to finish tied for 38th as well for Hillsdale.
Senior Drew Gandy rounded out the competing golfers for Hillsdale, bouncing back from rounds of 83 and 88 to start with a solid 78 in the final round to finish tied for 80th overall with a score of 249.
Hillsdale was next scheduled to compete the National Preview Invitational a week from today, but was forced to drop out after that event got moved up in the calendar. The Chargers are looking to compete in one more tournament before bringing the fall season to a close and preparing for the spring season, which begins in February, and will attempt to add an event to the calendar in late October or early November.
Photo Courtesy of Findlay Athletics