The men's golf team, in a performance head coach Mike Fleck called very below average, placed 16th out of 20 teams in Friday and Saturday's Marshall Invitational in Huntington, W.Va.
The team's finish and final-round score of 309 were its lowest of the spring season. Its total of 913 was its highest three-round score of the entire year.
"We went into this tournament with goals and expectations and we walked away with not a good taste in our mouths," Fleck said.
Ball State finished 36 strokes behind No. 11 Toledo, the invitational's winner. The Cardinals finished fifth of the eight Mid-American Conference schools at the meet.
"Toledo was head and shoulders above everyone else in the tournament," Fleck said. "They've established and proven themselves to be the top team in the conference."
What concerned Fleck the most were the team's lack of consistency and abundance of errors. Both are areas the team has put an extra emphasis on this season.
"The only thing we were consistent at was making a lot of mistakes," Fleck said. "We were consistently not good."
The bright spot for the Cardinals was the play of junior Kenny Cook, who tied for fourth with two other golfers. Cook was in first place after the first two rounds and finished one stroke behind second place.
"We had one great performance in what Kenny Cook did," Fleck said. "(His performance) is a testament to the hard work and dedication he has put in this season."
Heading into the Marshall Invitational, Fleck said the Cardinals were improving and gaining confidence with every tournament. The team increased its placing in each tournament.
Despite its worst shooting performance of the spring, Fleck said this weekend's effort did not hurt the team.
"We really haven't lost any confidence, though we may have lost a little momentum," Fleck said.
The team's next meet, the First Energy Intercollegiate, isn't until April 20-21. The event is hosted by another MAC school, Akron, and is the last tournament before the MAC Championships May 2-4.
"We're getting closer to where we want to be, but we're still far away," Fleck said. "I'm really going to apply the heat on the guys (these next two weeks) and see who really wants it."
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