The Marquette men’s golf team went 1-2 in its only encounter with match play golf this season at The Match Play at Pine Needles at Pine Needles Golf Club.
The men squared off with Rutgers on Friday and it came down to a 3-3 tie. The match play set up had each team use six golfers to compete, but because Rutgers won more individual holes throughout the event, it won the match.
Saturday, in the loser’s bracket, the Golden Eagles lost to the Seton Hall Pirates.
In its second match Saturday, the Golden Eagles defeated the Villanova Wildcats.
Redshirt sophomore Matt Haase said the team was upset about its play against Rutgers and used that as motivation for Saturday.
“We were pretty disgusted with ourselves after the first match and we really wanted to show what we could do…which was beat those two teams pretty easily,” Haase said. “We were on top of our games that second day.”
Senior Mike McDonald, who played in the No. 3 position, had the most successful individual weekend on the team.
McDonald said his game was made for success in match play.
“I’m a very straight hitter of the ball and do not get into much trouble,” McDonald said. “That’s the name of the game: don’t give your opponent any opportunities to take a hole from you.”
McDonald attributed his personal success to his play off the tee over the weekend.
“I hit pretty much every fairway and if I missed one it was just by a little bit,” McDonald said. “That was the name of the game: getting the ball in play off the tee, every hole getting it in a good position.”
Junior Kelly Kretz, who played in the No. 1 position, went through the weekend winless.
“Kelly ran into some guys who just played really good golf. He wasn’t disappointed with his week because he knows he played some good golf,” Sieg said.
McDonald said his teammates may have gotten too down on themselves when they fell behind in their individual matches.
“When you do go down in a match early you can’t look at the big picture,” McDonald said. “You’re not going to be able to make those holes up immediately.”