Going into the Irish Creek Collegiate, the men’s golf team knew it had to pick up its game to have any serious shot at retaining the Big East champion title. With dead-last and second-to-last finishes in three tournaments this spring, the Golden Eagles were scratching their heads trying to figure out what was going wrong.
However, it seems as though the team found its rhythm this weekend, finishing fifth overall in the Irish Creek Collegiate out of a 12-team field. The team posted a score of 868 (287-289-292) after three rounds on Sunday, which was five strokes better than sixth place Toledo.
“I think we were all in just a positive frame of mind,” senior Mike McDonald said. “We figured our time was now to show what we have. The weather was good for us, too, everything just came together for us. It was really positive going into the (Big East Tournament).”
Leading the charge for the Golden Eagles was junior Kelly Kretz who earned a top-five finish for the third time in his collegiate career, after finishing the third round with a one-under-par 70.
“It felt good to play well,” Kretz said. “We had shown signs of playing well and it was a good course. I was just able to score better than I have been — it was a great confidence builder going into the Big East Tournament.”
Kretz placed fifth individually, matching his previous best finish of the season at the Xavier Invitational this past October. In the first and second rounds he shot a 72 and 69, respectively, and his final score of 211 was just four strokes from first place.
McDonald shot 216 (73-70-73) to record a 12th-place finish and junior Ben Sieg placed 25th with a 220 (73-75-72).
“There’s no doubt that we are going into the (Big East) tournament thinking that we can win it,” McDonald said. “There is no reason that we can’t come in and do some damage. I think our chances can only increase with the results from this tournament.”
Sieg was happy about the way he and the team played and said that the chip on Marquette’s shoulder was added incentive to finish strong.
“We knew our season was running down and we wanted a good shot at winning the Big East,” Sieg said. “We just went out and played golf like we know that we can.
“I know we were the lowest ranked team in the field so this is good for us. But we have a lot to work to do still.”
Next up for the Golden Eagles is the Big East Golf Championship which will be held at the Innisbrook Golf Course in Innisbrook, Fla., in two weeks.
The Golden Eagles earned top honors in 2008 by winning the tournament and took second last season, but Sieg knows even though the team has had a less-than-stellar spring season so far, the players still look to compete.
“We’re not going to be happy unless we come home with the Big East trophy,” Sieg said. “We want to continue moving forward and advancing the golf program.”