The Hillsdale College men's golf team kicked off the 2022 spring season at the Saint Leo Invitational on Monday and Tuesday, finishing 12th in a tough field filled with Florida powers, but also finishing ahead of a couple of G-MAC foes.
The Chargers held it together through three rounds of tough competition against a field that included three teams ranked in Golfstat.com's DII top 25, battling through ups and downs on the course to shoot an 885, the team's second-best 54 hole score of the season. Hillsdale shot its best round of the tournament on Monday afternoon, firing a 292 to enter Tuesday in 10th place, but couldn't build off the momentum from that round, shooting a 298 over the final 18 holes to drop behind Tusculum and Florida Tech in the final standings.
Junior Gerry Jones Jr. had a strong invitational to lead the Chargers, shooting Hillsdale's only two below-par rounds of the tournament with a two-under 70 in round one and a three-under 69 in round two. While Jones Jr. couldn't match those heights in the final round, his four-over 76 was good enough to shoot a 215 for the tournament, just two strokes off his career best, and place tied for 16th overall. Jones was esepcially effective on Par 3s on the weekend, shooting a combined 3-under on those holes, the second best mark of any player in the tournament.
Consistency was the name of the game for Hillsdale's other golfers, as senior Josh Davenport and freshman Filippo Reale posted similar scores in all three rounds to both finish tied for 50th overall. Davenport shot a 74-74-75, posting 10 birdies on the weekend, to finish 7-over, while Reale got better with each round, carding a 76-74-73 and posting 10 birdies to finish seven-over as well. Senior Drew Gandy shot a 78-75-79-232 to finish tied for 76 as well for the Chargers, while freshman Oscar Darlington was unable to count his second round but posted a 75 in the first round and a 74 in the third to help Hillsdale hold on to 12th place.
Perhaps the most important result of the weekend for Hillsdale was the Chargers finishing a spot ahead of G-MAC and Midwest Regional rival Trevecca Nazarene, which shot an 893 to finish 13th. The Trojans beat Hillsdale by one place in two invitationals during the fall portion of the season, so Tuesday's result brings the head-to-head record between the two teams to 2-1 in Trevecca's favor, and gives the Chargers a chance to even things up the next time the two meet on the course. That could pay dividends down the road for the Chargers in April when the NCAA Tournament field is selected if both teams are under consideration for a spot.
Hillsdale is off until March 11, when the Chargers play in a busy weekend that includes multiple competitions. First, Hillsdale will play in the Browngolf Intercollegiate, hosted at the Foxfire Resort and Golf Club in Jackson Springs, North Carolina, on March 11 and 12. Then, the Chargers will play host on March 14 and 15 for the first ever Bell Collegiate at the Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina to wrap up a busy week of action.
Photo by Kyle Niermann/Findlay Athletics