10th place finish ends season

The men's golf team entered their last tournament of the season, the Bruce Fossum/Taylor Made Invitational, with the hopes that a solid finish would help propel the team closer to an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.\nUnless the team wins the Big Ten championship next week, that invitation will likely be lost in the mail. The Hoosiers fired a three-round 915 (305-315-295) and placed 10th in the 15-team tournament hosted by Michigan State.\nIU's struggles on the first day of the tournament can explain the team's lowest finish since their appearance at the Big Red Invitational in early March, when they finished 14th in the 16-team field.\nThe Hoosiers total of 620 on Saturday put the team in a hole that they would have trouble getting out of. The team was mired in 13th place after the first two rounds of play.\nCoach Mike Mayer was crestfallen after the first day of play.\n"We had a lot of momentum going into this weekend, but today we just didn't play the golf we're capable of playing," Mayer said.\nIn Sunday's final round, the Hoosiers were able to demonstrate the type of shotmaking that got them sixth-place finishes in their past two tournaments.\nJunior Ben Davidson and freshman Heath Peters led the way, each shooting even-par 72s in the final round. The duo ended the tournament tied for 29th place. Davidson fired a 78 and 77 in the first two rounds, respectively. Peters also shot even-par in the first round, but sandwiched an 83 between his par performances.\nBig Ten co-Golfer of the Week, freshman Jeff Overton, ended the tournament tied with teammate junior Aldo Jordan for 47th place. Overton (76-81-75) and Jordan (79-77-76) both fired 232 strokes.\nIU's third-round total of 295 tied them with tournament-champion Toledo for the third-best score of the round, and was enough to leapfrog the Hoosiers from 13th to 10th place.\n"Shooting 295 was really good for us today, but our finish does not reflect where we are as a team right now," said Mayer. "Unfortunately, we had a couple of bad rounds in a very competitive field, and you simply cannot do that…Hopefully our guys learn from this improvement and we can piece together a good tournament next week at the Big Ten's."\nThe Hoosiers are back in action in the 72-hole Big Ten Championship this Friday-Sunday. The tournament will be played at the University of Iowa's Finkbine Golf Course.