Men's golf finishes fifth at Pinetree Intercollegiate

Tuesday afternoon marked the end of the fall season for the IU men’s golf team. The Hoosiers capped off their season with a fifth place finish in the Pinetree Intercollegiate.

The team slid back one spot on the leaderboard in the final day of action, posting their highest cumulative single-round score of the tournament in the final round with a 10-over par 298.

IU Coach Mike Mayer said the conditions of the course put an extremely high emphasis on putting and made ball striking a less significant factor.

“The greens at Pinetree Country Club were unbelievable, incredible, but maybe too good,” he said.

The Hoosiers finished 13 shots shy of first place Kennesaw State, but were only five shots out of second place.

Each round for the Hoosiers, a different player provided the best individual score. Junior Nicholas Grubnich was the low man for the team in the third round with a one-over par 73, which brought him to a three round total of eight-over par 224.

Mills, who offered the second lowest score for the Hoosiers in each round, finished with the best total score for the team. He continued his consistent pace with a two-over par 74 to take home his second top 10 finish of the season, ending in a tie for 10th place at four-over par 220.

Mills said he thought the team needed to be more aggressive.

“I think we didn’t really make enough birdies to really give ourselves a chance to move up to where we needed to be,” he said.

Kollin and freshman Keegan Vea finished alongside Grubnich in a tie for 20th place at
224 after scoring three-over par 75 and eight-over par 80 in the third round. Freshman Will Seger concluded the team scoring at 225 in a tie for 26th place after shooting a four-over par 76 on Tuesday.

In the individual portion, freshman Andrew Havill posted a nine-over par 81 in the final round to finish in a tie for 51st place at 235 for the tournament.

In regards to the fall portion of the schedule as a whole, Mayer said the team accomplished most of the goals and objectives that he had set. 

“Obviously we would have liked to play better at times and finish better at times,” he said.

The Hoosiers will open up their spring schedule on Feb. 14 with the Big Ten Match Play Championship.

Kollin said he believes the team is set up for success when they return to action.

“I think we are going to play well coming up in the future, but we just need to harness this playing and use it for the spring,” he said.

Follow Mike Nichols on Twitter @Mike_Nichols1.