HARTFORD, Wis. (October 2, 2006) -- The Edgewood College men's golf team won its first team tournament in school history Monday as they shot a 619, five strokes better than runner-up Carthage College, at the Wisconsin Lutheran Invitational held at Washington County Golf Course.
All five of The College's golfers finished individually in the top 30 with John Bailey (Madison, Wis.) and Joe Schwartz (McFarland, Wis.), who finished tied for fourth place overall with a 153.
The Eagles set the pace early by leading the way in the first round with a score of 304. And although the conditions weren't ideal for the golfers, they battled through the elements to hang on to a first place finish.
"I was very happy with our 304 and thought that we had put ourselves in a position to gain victory," said head coach Gary Oftedahl. "I was curious to see how we would play with a lead and conditions worsening, but we kept our position during the front nine and played the last three holes strong to hold on for a victory."
Bailey, who was coming off of his record individual performance last week at the Wrigglesworth Invitational, scored a 76 on the first round and a 77 on the second round while Schwartz turned in his best performance of 2006 with a 75 in the first round and a 78 in the second round.
"Joe is demonstrating some golf maturity and playing with more confidence," said Oftedahl. "He has a great swing and is getting more comfortable with his driver. This performance will continue his growth and demonstrates that he can compete on a very difficult golf venue under challenging conditions."
But it takes more than a few individual performances to win a tournament as all five golfer's turned in impressive scores and all cracked the top 30 individually and fed off of each other to stay ahead for the victory.
"Our team togetherness is very evident," said Oftedahl. "We pull for each other and relish in each others success. On the range warming up, you can see each team member reinforcing what is working and assisting in areas that need attention."
The Eagles have just one tournament left before the Northern Athletics Conference championship, Oct. 15-16. And although they have made great strides during the course of the season and have had great success as of late, Oftedahl still views areas which need improving upon before the NAC championship -- some physical and some mental.
"I am not real confident with our short game right now," added Oftedahl. "we need to be more competent with shots 100 yards and in. To win conference we need to keep the consistency we have right now and our focus needs to be on the course we play and nothing else. All we can do is prepare for our own golf shot at hand and nothing else, if we can do this, we will compete as we should."
