The Marquette golf team, led by Kyle Murphy's final score of one-under par, took fourth place when play wrapped up on Tuesday at the Lexus Naples Intercollegiate in Naples, Fla.

The team shot nine-over par, which tied it with rival Wisconsin and left it 10-strokes behind district foe Illinois. After the first two rounds of play on Monday the team was in sixth place.

"I think the field was very strong down there," head coach Tim Grogan said. "To finish fourth was very respectable."

Still, Grogan felt the tournament showed there is room for improvement.

"We tied Wisconsin, and we would have liked to have beaten them," Grogan said. "We would have also liked to have beaten Illinois. If that would have happened it would have been 100 percent success."

Murphy got off to a good start on Monday, shooting one-under par in the first round, and then continued the strong play, shooting par for the last two rounds. His score of 215 for the tournament gave him the 11th best score out of 60 golfers.

"Overall when you go back and look at it I was happy," Murphy said. Still, Murphy thought that he could have played better.

"There were a lot of things I could have done differently," Murphy said.

"He is a competitor, when we play in top fields that is when he rises to the occasion," Grogan said about Murphy.

Before the tournament, Murphy noticed his swing had not "really felt right," so he met with coach Grogan to examine what was wrong.

"We put some things on video and showed it to coach and it was really bad," Murphy said. The video session led him to tweak his swing right before competition, although he is still not satisfied.

"It's not where it needs to be yet, not even really close," he said.

Sophomore Michael Bielawski started off slow with a six-over par in the first round, but played through it and shot par and two-under par in the next two rounds.

"I really like to see the guys play their best round in the final round of the tournament," Grogan said.

Bielawski and freshman Ted Gray tied for the second best scores on the team with a four-over par 220-stroke performance, which was good enough for 20th overall.

Juniors Joe Weber, who finished 27th overall shooting a 223 (seven-over par), and Steve Sass, who shot a 228 (12-over par) and finished in 36th place, also scored for Marquette.

Spring break will allow the whole team to travel to Florida, where they will compete in three tournaments in just 10 days, as well as play a lot of practice rounds.

"We are going to be down in the Orlando-Tampa area playing every day from sun up to sun down," Grogan said. "We have a lot of golf coming up, and each tournament we go to we feel we should keep getting better."

The first tournament for the team will be the El Diablo Intercollegiate in Citrus Springs, Fla., March 19-20. It's a course that Marquette struggled on last spring, when they finished in 10th place in the same tournament.

"That's one of the reasons we're going back," Grogan said, "for a little bit of redemption."

For the head coach, it's a good starting point for the team's extended trip down to Florida.

"This course is very challenging, and you have to hit it straight off the tee," Grogan said. "This golf course will identify your flaws, and then we will have the whole spring break to work on them."

On March 25 the Golden Eagles will go head to head with Wisconsin at the Orange County National golf course in Orlando, Fla. In addition to its tie with Wisconsin at the Lexus Naples Intercollegiate, Marquette beat Wisconsin earlier in the spring season at the St. Croix Collegiate by 13 strokes.

"Wisconsin has always been touted as the best team in the state, and we know we are better then them," Murphy said.

To finish out play over spring break the team will travel to Pinehurst, N.C., to play in the Pinehurst Intercollegiate tournament from March 28 to 29.

"It's just a great event, with a very strong field there," Grogan said.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 17 2005.