After a long winter, Cyclones golf recommenced on the links this week (April 26-28) for the NJCAA Region 4 Golf Championship in Byron, Illinois, where they finished 10th overall.
The PrairieView Golf Club is always a tough course, made even harder by some questionable weather. The field of region teams also is quite competitive, giving the Cyclones additional challenges to face.
On the first day, the course was playing rough with even the best teams struggling. Joey Charleston hung in there for an 84. Rory Moran had a solid front half but struggled in the latter nine holes to finish with an 89. Coming in after him was Dominick Rallo (93), Anderson Miz (95) and Fionn Gormley (101).
On the second day, a rain delay created two hours of stoppage play. When the golfers returned to the course, they had to deal with wet greens and 50 mph winds. "It was not easy. Balls were barely staying on the green without blowing away," said Head Coach Matt Lovelace.
All weather aside, the Cyclones still did better than the day before with Moran leading the way with an 84 followed by Charleston (86), Rallo (88), Gormley (95) and Miz (100).
By the third day, the Cyclones continued improving their scores, which is always what Lovelace asks of his golfers, especially at such a competitive venue. "Our team score improved every day. We could always be better, but it wasn't too bad considering none of the guys ever played on this course before today," he added.
Moran finished the tournament with an 83 and coming in right behind him was Charleston with an 84. Rounding out the scoring was Rallo (88), Tayler Schade (91) and Miz (95).
"Regionals went well overall, though the weather played major role. The wind and rain pushed scores higher than I've ever seen at a regional meet. Despite that, our guys performed really well. They were competing on an unfamiliar course, and PrairieView is one of the toughest [golf courses] in the state, so it's always a challenge to post strong results there."
Overall, Charleston finished in 35th place while Moran was in 38th, Rallo in 47th and Miz in 53rd. For complete results, visit https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/244538/scoring/team.