On March 23rd and 24th, the Blackburn College Men's golf team hosted the Blackburn Invite at Lockhaven Country Club for the opening round and played the second round at Belk Park Golf Course in Alton, IL. With conditions considerably better than last early spring the Beavers looked to get off to a hot start to their spring season.
The Beavers opened up the spring with a first day team score of 341, relative to the rest of the field this gave the Beavers a T-4th place after the first day. Senior, Anthony Harper paced the Beavers with an opening round of 81 and was followed closely by sophomore Isaac Garrett who shot an 83. Also counting scores for the first day was Junior Matt Kinsella, with an 87 and Jake Crews with a 90.
Heading into the second round on Sunday, the Beavers looked to capitalize on the scoring conditions that Belk Park presented. Harper came out on fire and shot a career low round of even par 72, which was good enough to earn him second place in the tournament. Matt KInsella also played solid and shot a 79. Isaac Garrett played consistent and shot another solid round of 81. Jake Crews and Freshmen, Thomas White rounded out the scoring with a pair of 85s. Blackburn's second day team score was a 317, which was good enough for Blackburn to notch a 4th place finish as a team, with a two day total of 658.
"As a team we played really well this weekend. There was some tough teams here and we showed up. We can only go up from here and keep working to get better everyday." Says Harper.
Coach Schultze on the weekend of Blackburn Golf: "We opened our season this past weekend hosting 6 other teams. The weather ended up cooperating though it was still pretty windy. The first day we showed our inexperience making mistakes that we were unable to come back from. Even still, we were tied for 4th, right in the middle of the pack, after the first round. Day two came and we were a much more confident team. From the start we acted like we were there to win. Day 2 we were lead by our lone senior Anthony Harper with an even par 72. He was the low score for the tournament and ended up finishing 2nd with a 2 day score of 153. As a team the second day we shot 317 which was good enough for 2nd for the day and allowed us to be 4th overall. Matt Kinsella shot 79, Isaac Garrett shot 81, and Thomas White and Jacob Crews both contributed with 85. For the first tournament it was a good showing, and allows us to see we can compete with the teams around. We will continue our season this coming weekend in Galesburg, IL when Knox is hosting an 18 team tournament."