The sky was clear and the sun was shining at the Delaware Country Club in Muncie on Monday. With a few dozen Ball State University men's golf fans in attendance at the Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational, Ball State hoped to play its home course well enough for a top three finish.
Despite the beautiful weather and fan support, the Cardinals shot a team-combined score of 577. Ball State is 18 strokes off the leader, the University of Toledo. After 36 holes of the 54-hole tournament Ball State is in fifth place.
Even though there are 17 teams in competition, the Cardinals are hoping today's scores improve.
"Obviously our goal is to win and finish in the top three," head coach Mike Fleck said. "We just shot a bunch of average rounds of golf. We are a little off pace right now, but we are going to try and get back into it with a better team effort."
Junior Matt Schumaker led all Cardinals with an individual score of 141. After shooting a 73 in the morning, Schumaker shot a team-low score of 68 in the second round to help keep the Cardinals in the top five. Schumaker is currently tied for ninth individually.
With players performing similarly to last week's showing at the Piper Intercollegiate, Fleck said he is disappointed in the lack of consistency he has seen with his golfers.
"If we had a few guys play under-par each round we would be right up there in the upper tier of teams," Fleck said. "One of our goals is to be more consistent. Having players play good rounds is a good thing, but we need to do it every time. We need to get better at individual productivity. We have to have a strong start and a strong finish."
Junior Brian Maurer, who led the Cardinals last week, is currently tied for 23rd individually. After shooting a 76 in the first round, Maurer came back with an even score of 70 in the afternoon.
"We were mediocre," Maurer said. "We didn't do anything great, but we didn't do anything terrible. We were unable to get some of those some under-par scores that will help us get into the top three."
Despite competing at a familiar golf course, Maurer sees little advantage for the Cardinals compared to the opposing teams.
"Of course it's an advantage knowing the golf course, but despite that we still have to hit golf shots and we haven't quite executed to what we would have liked," he said.
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