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Men’s golf finishes sixth at D.A. Weibring

The Bradley men’s golf team tied for sixth at the D.A. Weibring Intercollegiate this past weekend, finishing with a team total of 902 in three rounds at the par-71 Weibring Golf Club in Normal.

The opening day of play started off with some challenging wind, rain and even snow for the 17 teams competing.

Bradley head coach Jeff Roche said the conditions weren’t what the players wanted, but they stayed strong throughout the event.

“I think [the event] was really good for us,” Roche said. “We went from some cool wind chills on the first day to snow on the second day. From a mental standpoint, we were really tough and strong. I thought there were a lot of positives.”

Redshirt senior Zach Jewell had the best two rounds of the day, with a pair of 2-over 73s. Jewell tied for fourth at four-over par 146 – three shots behind individual leader and University of Wisconsin-Madison golfer Griffin Barela.

The Braves concluded day one with a 308 on the first round and a 303 on the second to come up with a 43-over 611 team total. This tied Bradley at sixth with Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. Duke University led the opening two rounds with a team score of 19-over 587.

Jewell said he wasn’t phased by the weather but instead made sure to remain focused on his play.

“The first day, I tried to not think about anything,” Jewell said. “I didn’t know what a good score for the day was, I didn’t know what a good score for the round was. I just tried to go out there and worry about each hole as it came. At the end of the day, I ended up with a good score.”

The final day was highlighted by senior Matthew Specht finishing with a season-best 1-under par 70 and Jewell tying for seventh at 7-over par 220, thanks to a 3-over 74 third-round finish.

This was Jewell’s second straight top-10 finish to lead the Braves. As a result, Bradley finished the third round with a 291 to tie IPFW’s score for sixth at 902. Duke University won the team title with a total of 871.

Jewell said he was happy to finish in the top 10 again and believes that the overall changes to his practice routine really helped make his game more steady.

“It’s just nice to be consistent now,” Jewell said. “[During] the fall season, I didn’t feel like I played that consistently; my game was kind of all over the place. But we really did some good things over the off-season. We kind of changed the way we practiced, trained and think.”

Next up, the Bradley men’s golf team will be competing April 9 and 10 at the Ryman Hospitality Intercollegiate in Nashville, Tennessee.

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