The women’s golf team placed first of six teams in the Butler Spring Invitational while the men placed seventh out of 10 teams in the event.
The women’s team finished 32 strokes ahead of second-place Evansville to grab the top spot.
Senior Michele Nash led the women in the second round, shooting a six over par 77.
Photo courtesy of Butler Sports Information
“I am happy with the result, but I just wish my scores were a bit lower,” Nash said. “I was a little disappointed with my score, because I always try to shoot around par.”
Nash also led the team in the first round. She and junior teammate Julia Porter both shot a 76.
“We are going to have to work on playing our short game,” Nash said. “We also have to work on not getting down on ourselves mentally. Conference is coming up, so now is the time to start working on picking ourselves up and trying to recover.”
Senior Clare Cornelius, who shot an 84 in both rounds, also expressed disappointment in the team’s scores despite the victory.
“I think we had a decent round of scores, but we could have done better,” Cornelius said. “I think we just need to stay focused in practice and support everyone because everyone’s scores are put together, and one shot can make a difference.”
Nash said the Bulldogs need to improve their play prior to their next tournament on April 5.
“My expectations were to win today because we have played some of these teams throughout the season,” Nash said. “The result was a win, but looking forward to the [Big Four tournament], if we do the same as we did today, we will not do as well.
“The courses are just going to be harder as we go forward.”
On the men’s side, junior Matt Vitale said he was also disappointed with his team’s performance after the Bulldogs dropped from second place in the first round to a seventh-place finish overall.
The men recorded a team score of 299 in the opening round and sat 10 strokes behind leader Dayton.
However, the Bulldogs had the eighth-worst team score on the second day of play, putting them 18 strokes behind tournament-winning Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis at the end of the tournament.
“We definitely struggled a bit considering our position going into the second round,” Vitale said. “The conditions of the course were harder today, but the main story is how we performed, and we did not perform how we should have.”
Junior Andrew Wegeng, who shot a seven over par 79 in the second round, said the team needs to work on being consistent.
“All of us have different things that we are focusing on, but overall, we are just trying to get more consistent,” Wegeng said. “That is what we struggled with in the fall season.”
Butler was able to best Evansville, Robert Morris and South Dakota in spite of second-round struggles.
“This [tournament] is just one blip on the radar,” Vitale said. “I think we just need to get outside as much as we can.
“We had good play in Florida last week, so one bad week will not get us down.”
The next competition for both teams will be the Big Four tournament next Thursday in Carmel.
