In the swing of things

Ferris men’s golf team notches top three finish at NCAA Regionals

While Purgatory is thought to be neither good nor bad, it was pretty good to be there in the eyes of the Bulldog men’s golf team.

Ferris placed three golfers in the individual top 20 at the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Region Tournament en route to a third-place finish for the team. The Bulldogs shot a two-round score of 597 at the par 72, 7,268-yard Purgatory Golf Course at Noblesville, Ind, to finish 21-strokes over par. The tournament hosted 25 teams for the 36-hole tournament on April 10-11.

The Bulldogs finished one stroke behind second-place Ashland (596, +20), while Indianapolis (582, +6) took home a dominating victory, finishing 14-strokes better than Ashland.

A season-best 143 stroke effort from Senior Garrett Simons paced the Bulldog effort, as he earned a share of a tie for second place by finishing at one-under par. Rockhurst’s Clarke Fry (143, -1) shared second-place honors with Simons. Indianapolis’ Jacob Yocum (141, -3) took home top honors for the tournament.

Fellow senior Kyle Wittenbach(149, +5) earned a share of 13th place while junior Ian Straayer (151, +7) finished among eight players in 19th place.

The younger players rounded out the scoring effort for Ferris, as freshman Trent Davison shot a 154 to finish at 10-over par, good for a tie for 44th place. Sophomore Tyler Robinson finished the Ferris effort with 176-stoke effort in the two-day tournament, finishing 26-strokes over par.

The spring season will continue on for the Bulldogs with a trip to the Detroit Titans Invitational this weekend (April 15-16) at the Prestwick Village Golf Club in Highland, Mich. n