If the 49er Collegiate Classic at Cabarrus Country Club in Concord, North Carolina were 18 holes, the Ball State University men's golf team would have come away with a second place finish one stroke behind first place Charlotte University,
The Cardinals shot a combined team score of 294 in the first round, but windy conditions and poor putting during the second round contributed to the Cardinals posting a 319, and ending day one of the tournament in tenth place.
"The wind picked up and the conditions got tougher," coach Mike Fleck said. "It was disappointing we went the other way and dropped the way we did. We just didn't adjust."
Senior Wayne Denger, who was tied for first place individually after round one with a score of 70, ended with a 74 in the second round, putting him in third place overall. Freshman Travis Smith shot a 74 in the first round for the Cardinals.
"I felt good with where we were at," Fleck said. "We went out there and really did what we needed to do. Wayne was leading and Travis put up a solid 74. We were in really good shape, but just couldn't handle things after that. We had some experienced players who could have handled things better."
Austin Steele, who recently was named the Mid-American Conference Men's Golfer of the Week and the MAC Male Scholar Athlete of the Week, shot a 76 and 86.
"I was definitely shocked," Steele said. "I've been so focused on the team I didn't even think about playing as an individual."
In regard to Monday's performance, Steele discussed the complexity of Cabarrus Country Club.
"The winds picked up and the greens are very difficult down here," Steele said. "We know we had to post a good number to put ourselves in contention. We should be right there, but we didn't play well in the second round. Personally, I struggled with my putting. We weren't pressured but I felt timid with my putts. I messed up on the second round."
In addition, Denger didn't really know how to explain the lackluster performance of the second round.
"I don't really know what happened," Denger said. "All this fall it has been one good round and one bad round, but I'm sure we will go out there and play just fine. Our third round is usually our best and I have no doubts we are going to play well."
Steele, who realizes the Cardinals are a solid golf team, finds it disheartening to play so well in the first round but then poorly during the second round.
"We would be right there battling for a win with a good second round," Steele said. "We know we can go out there and shoot one of the better rounds."
Despite finishing the round not as planned, Fleck feels that Ball State can still win this tournament if it posts low scores during the third round on Tuesday.
"Everyone was pretty disappointed," Fleck said. "We put ourselves in a really good position and just gave it away in the second round. We are going to have to play like crazy to crawl ourselves back."
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