The Marquette men’s golf team started its season with a 10th place finish at the Wolverine Intercollegiate, which wrapped up last Tuesday, but the team is looking to aim much higher throughout the rest of the season.

Overall the Golden Eagles were disappointed with the finish, but coach Steve Bailey said there were still spots of good golf.

“I saw a lot from two of our freshmen, C.J. Swift and Will Joiner,”  Bailey said. “C.J. (Swift) didn’t have any freshman jitters and got out to a good start, and Will (Joiner) showed some good signs.”

Swift in particular impressed Bailey, as the Connecticut native shot 75 each of his first two rounds before closing with an 82 in the third round. Joiner, a Tennessee native, competed as an individual and finished with an overall score of 225 (76-76-73).

“I’m excited about all of our young guys, but talent-wise C.J. has shown that the sky is the limit,” Bailey said.

Matt Haase, the team’s only senior, led the way for the Golden Eagles, shooting a 74 in each of his first two rounds and a 73 in the final to tie for 31st place overall. Haase, like his coach, said that he was disappointed but saw potential in the Golden Eagles’ low overall placing.

“I went into the season knowing we were going to be young,” Haase said. “We need to focus more on the process and not the result, because that’s just an extra worry that you don’t need out on the course.”

Sophomore Corey Konieczki related to the struggles of adjusting to college-level competition that the team’s freshmen experienced in Michigan. Konieczki played his way into the top tier of the team’s roster last year as a freshman and said that for many players the first tournament is usually a road bump.

“I think a lot of it was the young guys getting their first tournament out of the way,” Konieczki said. “For the older guys it was just getting back into the college tournament atmosphere.”

Bailey said another problem with the team is with its short game, as the golfers struggled collectively to finish holes and make easy putts.

“We’ve driven the ball very well,” Bailey said. “All six of our guys hit 55 percent of their fairways, but we need to work a lot on our short game. When we missed the greens, we didn’t have a lot of up and down opportunities.”

With the first tournament in the books, the Golden Eagles will take the good and get over the bad heading into their next tournament, the Cardinal Collegiate in Simpsonville, Kentucky. Bailey said that his team will benefit from the familiarity it has gained from playing at Cardinal Club the past few years.

Haase also said he’s excited for the Louisville trip and the chance for the younger players to gain more experience. He said the team has no good or bad expectations for the season, and it will look to tackle the rest of the schedule one match at a time.