Team finishes seventh

Improvement is always good. Finishing 15th at last year's Badger Invitational, the only direction the men's golf team could go was up. And that's exactly what they did. Shooting a collective 286 in the third round helped the Hoosiers secure seventh place out of 15 teams. \n"We played okay. There was a lot of talent in this tournament. We improved on last year, but we still have to eliminate mistakes," coach Mike Mayer said. \nJumping out early to four-under par early in the first round, senior Aldo Jordan helped the Hoosiers end the first day in ninth place, 12 shots off the lead. He ended Friday with a two-under par, 70, tops for all Hoosiers that round. The rest of the squad had a rough time through the first round, with the next lowest score coming from sophomore Jeff Overton with a one-over par, 73. Senior captain Ben Davidson shot a dismal nine-over par 81. Senior Mike Miller came out with a three-over par 75. \n"I played well the first round, struggled the second round, and made some dumb mistakes the last round. But I hit the ball really, really well. I'm on the right track," Jordan said.\nThe pillows must have been colder on Friday night, because the Hoosiers came out a different team during the second round Saturday. Led by Davidson, who had the biggest turn around of the day, shot a two-under par 70 to help lead the men to a 288 second round score which helped the team move one place into eighth place. Miller shot a par 72 for the round, displaying his senior leadership. \n"I got down on myself after the first round, but I played smart the rest of the tournament. I hit fairways and more greens in the second rounds and I putted better," Davidson said. \nSunday included three of the bigger stories of the tournament for the Hoosiers. Overton shot a three-under par, 69, which left him in the top 15, tied for 14th. Overton's score of 69 was one shot off of the Indiana record for an individual-18 hole round at the Badger Invitational. Former Hoosier John Andrews holds the lowest round score at the Badger Invitational with a 68 in 1987. Davidson tied his career best for 54 holes with a 219, which he set at the 2001 Badger Invitational. It was not something he was even aware of this time around. The third achievement during the weekend was Jordan setting his career 54 hole record with a 218, one below his former personal best. \nFor all the low totals for a round and overall, there is still room for improvement -- a lot of improvement. \n"We expect rounds like that from Jeff. He is capable of shooting a 69 or lower each and every round. He just had a tentative first two rounds," Mayer said. \nThroughout the next week and a half before their next tournament, the one thing that the team will prioritize the most will be their putting. Mayer said the men struggled with their putting and many of the players agreed. \n"We need to work on our putting. No one could putt well throughout the weekend," said Mayer.\n"I need to work on not three putting anymore," Jordan said. \nIn Madison the conditions were ideal for golf. \n"The conditions the whole weekend just made it perfect to hit a low round," said Mayer. "But the course was a very tough course. And we got off to a bad start, this year and last year, but the difference was last year's bad round wasn't as bad as this year's bad round."\nThe weekend's finish brought added confidence to the team, who accomplshed the goals they had set before the tournament began.\n"We had two goals for the last round. One was shooting under par as a team, which we did. And the other was having one guy shoot in the 60s, which also happened," said Mayer. \nMiller seemed to have recovered quite well from his wrist injury, tying his career best for 54 holes. Mayer said Miller is about 80 to 85 percent healthy. \n"When he gets back to 100 percent, he will be dangerous. He battled, and competed this weekend," Mayer said.\nBig Ten teams Illinois and Penn State finished ahead of the Hoosiers, while Iowa and Wisconsin finished at the bottom of the pack. Toledo's Brad Heaven and his team took home top honors as a team and in individual competition. \nThe Hoosiers finished in seventh place as a team. Individually each of the Hoosiers tied within their respectable place finishes. Overton placed 14th, Jordan finshed 25th, Miller 28th, Davidson 46th, and sophomore Heath Peters 55th.