‘Tough’ course troubles Drake

The Drake men’s golf team registered a last-round 301 on Tuesday to finish 16th at the Old Dominion/Outer Banks Invitational at the Kilmarlic Golf Club in Powells Point, N.C.

Redshirt sophomore Devin Leland paced the Bulldogs with a season-low score of 70. Leland led the Bulldogs overall with a three-round total of 227, ranking 43rd.

Sophomore Blake Huser finished with a three-round total of 235 after firing a final-round 77. Huser claimed 64th place.

The Bulldogs faced a shaky start after firing a first-round score of 322 on Sunday, good for 18th place. Drake improved on Sunday’s performance with Monday’s second-round score of 305, pushing the Bulldogs into 17th place.

Despite steady improvement at the Old Dominion/Outer Banks Invitational, challenging conditions doomed Drake early on.

“This weekend, we didn’t play so well. It was really kind of tough conditions, really tough golf course,” said sophomore Dane Worley. “We dug ourselves into a hole on the first day and dug ourselves out of it a little bit, but moving forward, we need to get off to a better start.”

The Old Dominion/Outer Banks Invitational completed the Bulldogs’ fall campaign. Drake set high expectations entering the fall campaign, but difficult courses troubled the Bulldogs throughout.

“I think the fall didn’t go as good as we’d wanted or expected,” Worley said. “I think our expectations were a little higher. We had some good tournaments and rounds, but we still didn’t put it all together.”

With spring competition now forefront, though, Worley and the Bulldogs look to “stay driven” over the winter.

“We just want to do whatever we can to keep our games sharp,” he said. “We have four months off, so we’re just doing what we can to stay driven.”

The Bulldogs aren’t forgetting the fall campaign, though. After playing difficult course after difficult course, the Bulldogs look to build on the fall with spring competition in mind.

“I think it gives us a good basis of where we need to go,” Worley said. “It just shows us that we all have stuff we need to work on, specifically, to become better individually, which in return, makes us a better team. We played a lot of really challenging golf courses this fall, so it just puts a premium on not having all aspects of your game. So, it exposes the weaknesses, and it gives us all an understanding of what we need to work on this winter in order to be ready to go for the spring.”