Nicholls put together a solid final round of golf en route to posting a seventh-place finish, in a 16-team field at the Moe O’ Brien Golf Invitational. The event, which took place at the Lake Charles Country Club, saw the Colonels finishing seven strokes out of third when the three-day tournament concluded Tuesday.
“All the team’s were pretty close,” Nicholls golf coach James Schilling said. “We did okay, but honestly we didn’t play as good as we are capable of playing. People keep talking about how we are beating conference schools, but I’m not surprised that we are beating them.
“The main thing I was proud of was how the guys stepped it up in the last round to help us get seventh.”
Leading the way for the Colonels was Kevin Axford, as he shot rounds of 75, 72 and 74 for a 221 total. Axford’s finish was good enough for seventh overall.
Finishing behind Axford was Jacob Lipari, as he tallied 26th place with his 227 score.
Following Axford and Lipari, were Billy Rase, Chris Ohrn and Rod Lemoine. Rase fired off rounds of 71, 78 and 83 for a 232 score, while Ohrne and Lemoine finished with 235 and 241 totals respectively.
Also competing in the tournament was Sammy Weber, whose score did not count toward the Colonel total, shot rounds of 82, 80 and 79 to finish with a 241 total.
In team scoring, Nicholls finished five strokes ahead of eighth-place finisher, Stephen F. Austin, while finishing one stroke behind sixth-place Southern Methodist University’s junior varsity team.
Lamar led the way with a 863 finish, while host school McNeese State University came in third with a 905 total.
Three Lamar Cardinals finished first through third, they included Chris Stroud, Joe Kunick and Matt Larson.
In other news, Lipari was named the Southland Conference’s golfer of the week for his play in last week’s New Orleans Tournament. Lipari fired off rounds of 76 and 73 to tally a 149 finish, which was good for 11th place.
Nicholls will return to action on April 8-10 when they travel to Nashville, Tenn., to take part in the Belmont University Invitational at Legends Club of Tennessee.
“This will actually be the toughest tournament we compete in,” Schilling said. “They will have several of the top-50 teams competing there, which will include the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. It is during spring break, and we will just see how it goes.”
