Bradley men’s golf kickstarted its spring season with strong showings from junior Josh Kirkham and graduate transfer Aaeri Krishan on Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Dove Mountain Invitational in Marana, Arizona.
After playing their busiest fall season since 1984, the Braves began their spring season at The Golf Club at Dove Mountain, which has hosted PGA Tour events in the past.
Kirkham took home his fourth top-20 finish of the season with a final score of 232, placing 12th. Krishan joined him in the top 20, two strokes behind Kirkham.
“It’s the first event of the year, so I kind of take it with a grain of salt,” Kirkham said. “The golf course kind of exposed a lot of things [in my game] that were not tightened up over the winter because of the difficulty of the track.”
The Braves finished fourth in the tournament with a final score of 965. North Dakota State claimed the team title and fellow Missouri Valley Conference rivals, Valparaiso and Northern Iowa finished second and third, respectively.
While the conditions were perfect in Marana, the course’s overall setup and undulations of the greens made the course a difficult one to traverse.
“The first 45 holes were kind of up and down, even for Josh Kirkham, who played good front nines but didn’t play his [best] on the back nine,” Braves head coach Jeff Roche said.
The first day of action had to be finished early due to darkness, and with it, the second round was suspended. The second round was wrapped up along with the third during the second day of the competition.
The junior trio of Nick Armburst, Roy Radke and John Stillman improved as the tournament went on.
Armburst played his lowest round in the 2021-22 season, carding a third-round 78 which placed him in the 27th spot. Radke was consistent as he shot 85, 85 and 86, putting him in 34th. Just three strokes behind Radke was Stillman with his lowest score of the week, of 83 coming in the final round.
While playing as an individual, Brady Kreiter finished with a final score of 252 for a 32nd place finish.
With new golf swings for some and an overall mentality shift, the team has been working hard to get into contention.
“We set some strategy goals, just to kind of take away from outcome-oriented goal … we need to learn to compete and believe that we can compete with whoever we’re playing,” Roche said.
The Braves returnduring the tail end of spring break, as they compete at the Twin Oaks Invitational on March 21 and 22 in Springfield, Missouri.
