Ham Lake, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s golf team showed improvement from day one to day two with a team score of 302 on Sunday at the Augsburg College Fall Invitational held over the weekend at Majestic Oaks Golf Club. To go along with a 307 in the opening round, the Gusties finished eighth overall with a score of 609 (+33) in their first tournament of the 2014 fall season.
The University of Manitoba won the 18-team meet with a 584 (+8), Bethel University finished runner-up with a 594 (+18), and Augsburg College rounded out the top three in third with a 599 (+23).
“We scrambled well today considering how many greens we missed,” said Head Coach Scott Moe following the tournament. “We need to be sharper off the tee, which will be focused on heavily in practice this week. Now that we have our first tournament in the books, we can begin to fine-tune our game, correct mistakes, and learn to play more loose and relaxed as we head into the Saint John’s Tournament next weekend.”
Leading Gustavus at the Augsburg Invite was junior Matt Spier (Prior Lake, Minn.). After shooting a 79 (+7) on day one, Spier turned his game around and fired a 71 (-1) on Sunday to finish in a tie for 15th with a six-over-par 150.
Behind Spier was Andrew Brandt (Jr., Medina, Minn.) and Chris Captain (Fr., Rochester, Minn.) in 25th with matching 152s (+8). Brandt carded a 75 (+3) on day one and a 77 (+5) on day two, while Captain went 74 (+2) on day one and 78 (+6) on day two.
Rounding out Gustavus’s first team was Matt Rastetter (Fr., Maple Grove, Minn.) in 46th with a 79-76-155 (+11) and Danny Cameron (Sr., Bloomington, Minn.) in 98th with an 80-91-171 (+27).
Individual medalist honors went to Concordia College’s Coy Papachek who edged Bethel’s Dillon John by one stroke with a two-day total 140 (-4). John finished three-under with a 141, and Ryan Dirr of Manitoba and Alex Kapraun of Saint John’s filled out the podium in a tie for third at an even-par 144.
The Gustavus men’s golf team will be back on the links next weekend when it travels to central Minnesota for the Saint John’s University Invitational. The Saint John’s Invite will be held Saturday, Sept. 13 at GreyStone Golf Club in Sauk Centre and Sunday, Sept. 14 at Blackberry Ridge in Sartell.