Marquette golfers turned this weekend into an early Senior Day of sorts, relying on two top-20 finishes from their seniors to finish sixth out of 18 teams at the Dick Wittcoff/USF Invitational in Tampa, Fla.
Coming off a hole-in-one in his last tournament, senior Nathan Colson shot two rounds under-par to finish third, three shots back, in this weekend's 54-hole, three-round tournament. His one-over, 214 performance led Marquette (37-over 899) to a tie with Jacksonville State for sixth place.
"I played the course many times before and the weather was really great," Colson said. "Those things came together to help me play well."
Middle Tennessee State (19-over 871) won the event by a stroke over New Orleans (20-over 872). Greg Koch of Florida Southern shot 2-under 211 to win the event by a stroke over Nick Bailes of Middle Tennessee State.
Marquette senior Kyle Murphy used a second-round even-par 71 to help him finish tied for 19th, shooting 10-over 223. Freshman Mike Van Sickle fired three consistent rounds to finish tied for 31st at 12-over 225. Sophomore Ted Gray placed 51st, shooting 16-over and senior Joe Weber was 80th at 24-over to round out the Marquette scores.
"Some of the guys didn't play as well as they wanted to," Colson said. "But I believe everyone improved and is working towards turning it into better tournaments."
Even with their mediocre team performance, Marquette bested the three Big East teams in the tournament: DePaul (9th, 47-over 899), host South Florida (14th, 58-over 910), and St. John's (tied for 17th, 76-over 928).
Colson expressed a little frustration in Marquette's sixth-place finish in Tampa, which was disappointing considering the team's stellar fall season in which they won two events.
"It was very difficult because we aren't going to play the same as we did in fall after a two month break, but we still have the same expectations," he said.
The Golden Eagles will spend their spring break back in Florida, practicing in preparation for the final stretch of the season.
The team will continue its streak of playing some of the most difficult courses in the country March 19-21 when they visit Pinehurst, N.C., to play in the Pinehurst Intercollegiate. After that, the team will play in the Marshall Invitational April 7-8 before competing in the Big East Championship April 24-25 in Dale City, Fla.
"These last few tournaments are the biggest of our season, and everyone is gearing up and getting prepared to play well in them," Colson said.