After coming off of a tournament that ended Wednesday, Ball State Men’s Golf was back in action with a quick turnaround for the Boilermaker Invitational.
The Cardinals were at the Ackerman-Allen Golf Course and the roster consisted of sophomore Kash Bellar, graduate student Joey Ranieri, redshirt sophomore Ali Khan, freshman Carter Smith and redshirt sophomore Griffin Hare.
“The course was excellent, it was in great shape,” head coach Mike Fleck said. “The greens were really good and they got firmer as the three rounds went on. We had really good weather conditions, the wind picked up a little bit this afternoon. This morning it was ideal with really good scoring conditions.”
Friday - Round One
Since Ball State is coming off of a tournament that wrapped up Wednesday, they only got rest on Thursday.
“We came over here a little bit later Friday morning, we got some holes in during the practice round,” Fleck said. “I think fatigue may have played into it a little bit, but it is what it is. Our guys just really, as a team, weren't exceptionally sharp in that first round.”
Hare, who is back in the lineup after not being in it earlier in the week at Vanderbilt, led the Cardinals with his 1-under-par score of 70.
“I think he was just prepared to play,” Fleck said. “He was home for a couple of weeks and probably got some good work in and played well and the round that we played at home earlier in the week.”
Smith was second best with his 3-over-par 74 and was followed by Bellar who posted a 5-over-par 76.
Both Ranieri and Khan rounded out the first round with their 6-over-par 77’s.
Saturday - Round Two
Most invites will see Ball State play 36 holes in the first day and finish with 18 on the last day, this invite was flipped due to the weather that was coming in for Sunday.
“The guys just had to kind of approach it a little bit differently, knowing that there was a lot of golf today and that we could bounce back after not-so-good rounds yesterday,” Fleck said. “We did just that. So I'm proud of them from that standpoint of going out there and taking care of business this morning.”
Round two saw a big change in scores, dropping 17 strokes from round one to round two.
“We just got the ball in the hole a little bit more efficiently is all I can tell you,” Fleck said. “We weren't sharp yesterday, we came out this morning and actually took care of the par fives a little bit better in the morning than we did yesterday and even this afternoon.”
Khan and Ranieri led the Cardinals in round two, both shooting a 2-under-par 69. Ranieri had four birdies in his round and Khan had five birdies.
Smith and Bellar both posted an even-par 71.
Hare rounded out Ball State with his 3-over-par 74.
Saturday - Round Three
Smith posted a best for the round 1-over-par 72 with four birdies.
Khan, Bellar and Hare all came in with a 2-over-par 73.
Ranieri posted an 8-over-par 79 in his final round.
Ball State has one more regular season invite before the Mid-American Conference Championship. The invite is at Illinois in the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate from Apr. 22-23.
“I think the forecast for tomorrow and Monday doesn't look very good at all,” Fleck said. “I'm actually gonna give them a couple of days off and then we'll get back to it on Tuesday and get ready to be competitive over at Illinois. [They have] a really strong field over there as well with seven Big Ten teams and as well as Eastern Michigan.”
Contact Elijah Poe with comments at elijah.poe@bsu.edu or on Twitter @ElijahPoe4.
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