Because of poor golfing conditions, the Marshall Invitational in West Virginia was limited to 36 holes and the Ball State University men's golf team tied for ninth at the 17-team invitational.
The 54-hole tournament at the Guyan Golf and Country Club postponed competition Friday and played the first and second rounds on Saturday. Carding a 291 and 294, Ball State shot a team-combined score of 585.
"We got there and it was just steady rain," head coach Mike Fleck said. "The golf course was saturated with previous weather and it was just a situation where there was no way to play on the golf course. We waited it out Friday and went into a mode to play as much golf as we could Saturday. It made for an extremely long day, but I am glad we were able to at least play some golf."
The Cardinals tied Mid-American Conference opponent Miami University for ninth place. The University of Illinois came away with the victory, while 2007 Marshall Invitational winner Penn State University placed second. Other MAC schools included Bowling Green State University, which tied for 11th, and Ohio University and Northern Illinois University, which tied for 15th place.
"It's always a positive thing when we play MAC schools and are fortunate enough to beat them," Fleck said. "The goal is to continue to improve. Although we can beat MAC schools now does not mean we will in the conference championship tournament in three weeks."
Junior Andrew Rhodes topped all Cardinals, placing 14th individually in the 89-man field. Rhodes shot a team-low 70 in the second round. He finished with a total score of 142.
Brian Maurer tied for 23rd, while freshman Eric Skillman tied for 50th.
"Andrew got over the hump this week and played well," Fleck said. "He did a good job, but we have got to have that consistency throughout our entire lineup."
Frustrated that his players have been too inconsistent on the golf course, Fleck said, he hopes his team can put itself in a position where it can be more successful.
"We have played four tournaments this spring and had four different No. 1 players," Fleck said. "We have to iron out our inconsistency. It's just not acceptable. We need guys in the top third of the field to be successful from a team standpoint."
Although the 6,476-yard course, which was set up to play to par 71 was affected by the weather, Fleck said, it had no influence on the Cardinals' performance.
"Everyone else was in the same situation," Fleck said. "We knew the chances of playing Friday were slim. We dealt with the conditions like every other team. We just tried to play as much golf as we could Saturday."
While the Cardinals outperformed the MAC opponents, Fleck said he is still concerned about a few problems.
"Overall, I am disappointing in our performance." Fleck said. "We are still facing the same challenges each week. We are still inconsistent with our individual performances and players still have a challenge of completing a good round and finishing it off. We still struggle with that, but we need to get better."
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