Three men and two women from the Bruins golf team traveled to Tennessee on Saturday, March 22, to compete in the Bryan College Spring Invitational for the one-day men’s and women’s tournament. It was the third tournament of the season for the men and the first for the women. The team was able to bring only three men and two women, although four men are needed to record a team score. The Bruins recorded only individual scores.
“It’s always disappointing when you cannot post a team score,” Coach Scott said. “We only had three guys and two girls, and you have to have four to post a team score. But you can have individual scores. But individually we came home with three all-tournament team members. Our short game needs a little sharpening up, just chipping and putting, to get the scores lower. Our goal for next week is to have all the guys shoot in the 70s.”
“This was a course we had never played before, so it was a little interesting,” said junior Clay Wiginton. “It was difficult. The flags were in really hard places to hit to every hole. The scores weren’t usual, and the winning score was a 77.”
Wiginton and sophomore Micah Gold each hit a 78 and secured second place, and sophomore Blake Counts added an 84. Junior Karina Antonsen and senior Stefanie Nifenecker represented BJU in the women’s competition. Antonsen is new to the team this season, and this was her first tournament with the Bruins. Coach Scott said, “Karina is new this spring, so it was a good experience for her. She’s showing good promise and potential for the future and next fall.”
“Karina had a good learning experience on how everything works,” said Nifenecker, who placed fifth of the nine women competing. “It takes a while to play 18 holes; we started at 1[p.m.] and ended at 6:30. This was the first tournament for the girls. Overall it was a good experience.”
BJU will look to improve on this start as the Bruins host a women’s tournament in April at Pebble Creek Golf Club. “It’s good for us as a school to host something like that,” Nifenecker said. “With it being our first year, it definitely helps our name to get out there.”
The Bruins men’s team tees off tomorrow in Columbia as they compete in the Benedict College Spring Invitational.