Bradley’s men’s and women’s golf programs started their respective seasons at the Golfweek Program Challenge in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina this past week as both teams combined to finish sixth of 14 teams over the extent of the three-day tournament.
The tournament is unique because there are three trophies given out: a men’s champion, a women’s champion and a combined men’s and women’s champion.
Campbell University, who has now won the event six out of the seven years it’s been held in Myrtle Beach, continued their success at the annual event. They won the men’s, women’s and the overall championship by shooting 66-under-par over three days.
The tournament was Jeff Roche’s debut as the interim head coach for the women’s program and he said it went as smooth as it possibly could have. Zach Jewell, Roche’s volunteer assistant and member of last year’s MVC Championship team, also travelled on the trip to assist in coaching the ladies team.
“It worked out great,” Roche said. “Jewell ended up staying with the ladies the whole time. We were going to tag-team it and I was going to go one day, and he did such a great job they said let’s just keep it the same.”
The courses were hot and humid, but low winds made the courses very playable all tournament long. The ladies finished seventh as a team, and senior Frankie Saban finished 25th overall at 10-over-par 223. She was closely followed by juniors Taylor Ledwein and Megan Medinger, who shot 225 and 229 respectively.
“Given it was our first event, I think the team did great in the areas of adapting and learning while out on the course,” Saban said. “Everyone seemed to bounce back well from mistakes and kept a great mindset when facing challenges. We met our team goal that we set before hand and I personally met mine as well.”
Roche was also impressed with the first outing of the year, considering other teams had already played their first tournaments coming into this one.
“On the ladies side, we need to minimize some of the bigger numbers,” Roche said. “We didn’t have many bogies, but we had double bogies and triple bogies. If we minimize some of those and capitalize on some more birdie opportunities the ladies will be just fine.”
The men finished ninth of 14 with at a 1-under 863 and were led by senior Drake Bushong. Bushong’s consistent play over the course of the tournament landed him at 3-under 213, which was good enough for 15th place.
“Individually it felt great to get out and play competitive college golf,” Bushong said. “As a team we played solid, but the course was setup for a lot of birdies to be made and that doesn’t really fit our game. We are more of a grind it out team on tough courses and shoot even par.”
Scores were low for the tournament and Roche indicated that the team hasn’t been in that situation in too many of their tournaments in seasons past.
“We don’t play too often when scores are that low,” Roche said. “We pressed a little too hard and over-tried instead of understanding that we’ve got talent and if you just play your game everything will take care of itself.”
After Sunday’s opening round, senior Michael Mounce held claim to the second spot overall at 6-under 66. He went on to finish in a tie for 33rd as he finished the lowest 54-hole round of his career at 1-under 215.
“Both programs are in a good spot,” Roche said. “Obviously, you’d like to compete for a title, but there’s more to it than just that. As you build and try to work on some things, sometimes my philosophy is when things don’t go exactly as you planned, you actually can learn and get better, faster when those things happen.”
Both teams will play in Indiana this Monday and Tuesday. The women will play at the Ball State Cardinal Classic in Muncie, and the men will compete in the Valparaiso Crusader Classic in Chesterton.
