Members of the Marquette men’s golf team thought a trip to California would spur its best performance of the year, which was not the case with the team finishing 12th out of 16 teams at the St. Mary’s Invitational.
Senior Mike McDonald was the top scorer for a Marquette squad that shot 44-over-par 908 for the tournament. McDonald shot 4-over-par 220, and tied for 11th place in the tournament. His final round 71 was the only round under par by a Marquette golfer all tournament.
Redshirt junior Ben Sieg, who finished tied for 37th at 11-over-par, was the only Marquette player to shoot a round of even par with his 72 in the second round.
Sieg said one positive he took away from the weekend was the team’s ability to finish ahead of Wisconsin, which finished in 13th place.
“We played against them three times last year and never beat them. This is the first time I’ve been on the team and beaten them,” Sieg said. “It’s a friendly rivalry, but we still want to win.”
In the last two events of the year, McDonald led the team. He was the only player to win all three of his matches at the Match Play at Pine Needles and was the team’s top scorer at St. Mary’s. Redshirt sophomore Matt Haase said McDonald is the “unofficial team captain.”
“He’s now in a position where he can be more of a leader and fire you up more, which suits Mike well,” Haase said. “He really does a good job with encouragement and getting everyone going. He’ll always back you up.”
McDonald played sparingly in his first three years on the team, only participating in seven events in that stretch — he played in all five events this fall, which was more than he had played in any other season.
What has made McDonald so successful down the stretch, according to Sieg, was not losing golf balls.
“This is a PGA tour caliber course — tighter than we have ever played — and he kept it in play. I’m sure he had a few bad holes, but he kept his scores under 75, which is what coach (Tim Grogan) is stressing,” Sieg said. “When you keep the ball in play you’re going to keep your number low.”
McDonald said that from birth he was destined to be a golfer because when he arrived home from the hospital a set of Playschool golf clubs were already at home for him.
His parents didn’t force golf upon him and gave him options to explore other sports. As a child he played baseball, soccer and basketball in addition to golf. Basketball and golf were the only sports he played at Germantown High School in Wisconsin — basketball just for freshman year.
Marquette wasn’t interested in McDonald until his senior year of high school when he became a first-team all-state selection and finished second in the division 1 state championship tournament.
McDonald knew he wanted to go to Marquette because he could be close to his family and friends. Now, almost halfway through his senior year, he said there are no regrets.