In its last tournament of the fall season the Ball State University men's golf team finished 17th out of 18 teams at the Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate in Las Cruces, N.M.
The Cardinals shot a team-combined score of 893, 32 strokes behind first place New Mexico State University.
"It's pretty disappointing," coach Mike Fleck said. "We had been playing pretty good team golf the last three events, but to end on this note will be a hard pill to swallow as we head into the off-season."
Ball State shot 41-over par. After all three rounds, eight individuals shot under par out of 100 golfers.
"On Sunday we had a good afternoon of practice and felt like we got comfortable on the golf course, but on Monday we acted like we had never played golf before," Fleck said.
Senior Andrew Rhodes and sophomore Eric Steger both tied for 29th place individually, each posting a score of 218. Rhodes carded a 79, 74, 65, while Steger managed a 72, 73 and 73. Rhodes' score of 65 was the lowest round for any golfer in the entire tournament.
"We didn't start too good, and we need to be more consistent," Rhodes said. "We need to limit the high rounds, but most importantly we just need to move on. We need to keep busting our tails and work on things in the winter. If we work harder than everyone else we will come out on top in the MAC."
Two other Mid-American Conference teams competed in New Mexico. Miami University tied for sixth place, while the University of Akron tied for 12th place.
"We have to get better," Rhodes said. "We are lacking confidence, but we will get things turned around before the MAC Championships and everything should turn out fine and fall into place."
Senior Brian Maurer, who tied for 68th place, realizes the Cardinals didn't play well, but said he is confident the team can rebound in the spring.
"We have to bear it out for the next four months and prepare the best we can for the spring season," Maurer said. "We will pull through this and be alright. As a team we need to get better mentally and physically. We need to be the most mentally tough team out there. We know we are better than some of the teams we played and that is the hardest part."
Until March, the Cardinals will work on becoming a more consistent golf team and prepare for the conference tournament.
Fleck said he knows his team must be focused.
"These guys have got to figure out how to be more consistent and play at a higher level," Fleck said. "We know we have a lot of work to get done this off-season and when we come back they got to focus and get as good as they can because the spring will be here before we know it. Right now we are disappointed, but our goal has always been to play the best golf in the first week of May in the championship."
Ball State will not be in competition until March 15 when the Cardinals travel to Pinehurst, N.C., for the Pinehurst Intercollegiate.
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