Sept. 26, 2017
SHOAL CREEK, Ala. – The Notre Dame men’s golf team closed out play at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate on Tuesday by finishing in sixth place, shooting an 869 (+5) overall. The Irish sat in second place at the start of the day, but six costly double-bogeys resulted in a final round of 298 (+10), in which just seven strokes separated the difference between a second place and sixth place tournament finish.
“It was a good positive week but not the result that we wanted,” Notre Dame head coach John Handrigan stated. “We put ourselves in a position to win, learned a lot about our team and how to improve before our next tournament.”
The Irish collected a total of nine birdies over the first six holes, jumping out to an impressive start in which they were five-under par as team. However, the day took a turn when three different Irish golfers each suffered two double-bogeys over the remainder of the round.
“We played better over the first two rounds of this tournament (compared to Badger Invitational),” Handrigan continued. “We have a very strategic course plan and didn’t have the discipline to execute today. We are going to learn from it and address it these coming weeks.”
Highlighting the individual effort today were Miguel Delgado and Kevin Conners, as each shot even or below par on the front-nine before settling with a final round tally of 73 (+1).
For the second straight fall tournament this season, Delgado shot a 216 over 54 holes to finish at even-par. The result was good for 14th overall on the leaderboard. Meanwhile, Conners tied for 20th overall at 218 (+2).
Hunter Ostrom, who went 69 and 72 over the first two rounds, tallied a 78 today to finish in a tie for 23rd at 219 (+3). Ben Albin shot one-under on the front-nine before closing out the round at +2 (74), tying for 32nd overall at 222 (+6).
Up next, Notre Dame will return to campus for its lone home tournament of the year – The Fighting Irish Golf Classic, Oct. 8-9, at the Warren Golf Course.
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Josh Bates joined Fighting Irish Media as associate athletics communications director in July of 2017, serving as the women’s basketball and men’s golf contact. Bates earned both his bachelor’s (2011) and master’s (2014) degree in sports management from the University of Illinois. He also worked as a grad assistant at Illinois from 2012-14 and worked full-time at Tulane University from 2014-17.