WJU Men’s Golf Finish First to Close Out Fall Schedule
CHANDLER, Ariz. – The Warriors closed out the fall season at conference foe, Arizona Christian’s Firestorm Invitational where they had their best finish of the season, tied for first at the Whirlwind Golf Club, their third top-3 finish this year.
Head coach in his first season, Matthew Robinson commented on the Warrior’s strong finish, “As a whole, the team played well. The discipline and hard work are paying off and they got there first real experience as a team of being under pressure, needless to say, they handled it great.”
It was a strong start for the Warriors in what would be a nearly six-hour round on Monday where they finished with a team total 293, tied for second with South Mountain Community College. They would begin the second round, but due to darkness, it would be postponed to Tuesday and the tournament would get cut to 36-holes rather than the three rounds planned.
After the first round, sophomore Hunter Newlin was tied for second overall with a second-best score, 69. Oliver Csanyi was close behind just one-over par at 73 for ninth overall and Jacob Custodio finishing with 75, tied for 15th.
Newlin continued his leadership in the second round matching his first-round score and having to face off with Noah Hofman from Ottawa University – AZ to determine the winner. Hofman went on to win the title with an eagle on the third hole. The Warriors would finish tied for first with South Mountain Community College improving their first-round score by 5 strokes with a 288 second round final.
“Hunter played great,” Robinson said. “He came up a little short but he handled the nerves very well and this experience will pave the way to more opportunities like this moving forward.”
Going up against 10 other teams, three GSAC opponents along with a pair of ranked competitors, the Warriors finished 7 strokes ahead of their closest conference competition and 8 and 33 strokes ahead of nationally ranked competitors.
As they close their fall schedule, the Warriors improved every week with a second place, third place and now shared first place finish heading into the spring schedule, come the end of January.
“This experience will definitely pave the way for continued growth and success in the spring,” Robinson concluded
