The Marquette golf team seemed to regain some of the consistency and swagger it carried last fall at the 37th annual Marshall Invitational, finishing fourth overall in the final tournament before the Big East tournament.
"The guys are playing better than the even scores are indicating right now," said head coach Tim Grogan. "But this is now the time of the year where success is putting a good number on the board."
After sleep-walking through much of the spring season, the turn-around could not have come at a better time.
"This spring has been deceiving," said senior Kyle Murphy. "We have either had tough course, bad weather or both. However, we haven't played up to our potential, but we are finally getting back to where we were in fall."
Murphy led the Golden Eagles (31-over, 883) with a one-over, 214 three-round performance, tied for third place, one stroke back of individual winner Peter Sauerbrei of Eastern Michigan (even-par 213). Sauerbrei's playoff victory over Shawn Warren of Marshall helped the Eagles (16-over, 868) to a team title over second-place finisher Ball State (26-over, 878).
Murphy contributed his success to his determination as he enters the home stretch of his final season.
"I took this tournament personally," Murphy said. "I'm a senior and I've only got a couple of meets left, I wanted to give everything I've got."
The field again had some difficulty with the Marshall's course. Along with wind gusts up to 30 mph, the par 71, 6,476-yard course was extremely wet, forcing the players to play ball-in-hand in the fairways for the first two rounds and ball-in-hand for the entire course for the final round.
"The standing water made the course play longer," said freshman Mike Van Sickle. "At times we had to putt through casual water, which was not easy."
Joe Weber (9-over, 222) tied for 24th and was the second highest finisher for Marquette. Nathan Colson, who has played well for much of the spring, had a mediocre tournament, finishing 38th at 11-over, 224. Van Sickle and Ted Gray tied for 58th at 15-over, 228.
The team now has a week and a half to prepare for the biggest meet of its season: the Big East Championship on April 24 and 25 in Dade City, Fla. The team needs to win this event to move on into the NCAA Midwest Regionals. Grogan said he will focus on his players' short games in practice.
The team expressed self-assurance that has been mostly absent this spring.
"This is what we have been looking forward to all season. We have five guys who are extremely capable of playing well," Murphy said. "If we do that, we will be in position to succeed at the end."