Nicholls golf finishes 11th in SIUE Invitational

The Nicholls golf team wrapped up the SIUE Derek Dolenc Invitational tournament with
disappointing results, but showed round to round improvement. The team finished 11th overall
out of 17 participating teams. For the tournament, teams played three rounds and individual par
was set at 71.

In Monday’s rounds, the Colonels ended the day placed 12th out of the 17 teams with a
score of 299 in round one and 307 in round two. This gave Nicholls a score of 606 for day one,
which was 38 over par as a team. Individually, freshman Connor Campbell finished the first day
four over the par set at 71. His second round score of 72, one over par, was the best for any
Nicholls player for the day.
H
ead coach James Schilling praised his performance, saying, “I think he can build on this
going forward and that can give him more confidence. Anytime you have a freshman that can
lead the team, even when you have two seniors and two juniors and another freshman, it shows
that you’re recruiting the right people and it shows that he’s ready to play Division One golf.”

On Tuesday, however, the Colonels improved their play and jumped a spot as a team to
finish 11th overall in the tournament. The team shot a total of 297 on the day, ending the
tournament with a score of 903, 51 over the team par set at 852 for the tournament. Southern
Illinois University Edwardsville won the tournament with a 841, 11 under par. Campbell shot a
72 on day two as well and finished with a 218, good for 17th overall.
Schilling said that while the teams finish overall was disappointing, he was pleased with
the way they finished the final round.

“I thought that we started slow each round, specifically we weren’t accurate enough off the
tee, from where you start from. This was a golf course that, it’s very playable if you keep the ball
in play and you’re accurate, but if you miss the fairway on each hole, the ball is basically lost.
We weren’t accurate enough there and that put pressure on us throughout the round,” said
Schilling. “By not starting well, we were behind before the round was even halfway through. The
final round especially, we really improved coming in but we could have placed higher as a team
if we would have taken care of business right out of the gate. We need to improve on that before
we go to LSU.”

Nicholls golf will next travel to play in the David Toms Invitational hosted by LSU on
October 7 and 8.