Grinnell’s men’s golf team tied for 13th place in a 16-team field at the Wartburg Invitational, which took place last Friday and Saturday in Waverly, Iowa. With an idle weekend the week before the tournament, the golfers were anxious to get back in the game and insisted that their time off did not affect their performance.
“I try to approach every round the same way, whether it’s the first round of the year or the first round of the conference tournament,” said Jon Cohen ’14. “You’re always trying to get better and do the best you can with what you have on that particular day. If you do it right, there should be very little carryover from week to week, or even shot to shot. So it was a non-issue to not have had a tournament the previous weekend.”
The two-day event proved to be a challenge for the club because of the unfavorable weather conditions.
“Both days were difficult,” Cohen said. “The wind was up and on fast greens that posed a real challenge. You had to try to both read the green and guess how much of an effect the wind would have as the ball rolled. I really struggled with that.”
Yet the Pioneers managed to pull through and make the most of the competition.
“The whole weekend was an overall success, I would say,” insisted Chris Marsho ’14. “The conditions were atrocious with sustained 30 mile per hour winds all weekend. Considering the difficult weather, guys stepped up and showed mental toughness and we were able to have a nice meet.”
Indeed, Marsho managed to shoot a five-over-par-77 on Saturday, finishing the tournament with a 158 to take 14th place out of 98 golfers. Cohen also ended the tournament with a 158 after recording an 81 on the final day.
“Jon Cohen and Chris Marsho both put in the work in the offseason and it’s really paying off,” said assistant head coach Dave Arseneault Jr. ’09.
Another notable performance came from Max Herzberg ’14, who concluded the tournament with a 172 after shooting an 84 on Saturday. His performance impressed his teammates and coaches.
“Max’s 84 is the pleasant surprise of the week for sure,” Cohen said. “He wasn’t on our five-man roster for the previous meet. He played as an individual in that one. This week [head coach Brian Jaworski] put him in as our fifth guy, which meant that his scores could potentially count if he played well. To get not one, but two scores from Max, and for him to post the third best total for the weekend is awesome production out of our five guys.”
Herzberg attributed his success to the team cohesion.
“I would attribute my success last weekend to a supportive team and a lot of hard work over the last year,” he wrote in an email to the S&B. “We are a really tight-knit group that wants to see each other succeed and I feel really comfortable asking a teammate to look at my swing or help me hone a new skill on the course. Then, as an individual, it is up to me to put the time in on the course and get better every day.”
Having gained some optimism coming out of last weekend’s tournament, the Pioneers are scheduled to compete at the Illinois College Blueboy Invitational in Springfield, Ill. today and tomorrow. It will be the last tournament before the Midwest Conference Championships and the pressure is beginning to kick in. Still, the team is gearing up for excellence.
“My outlook for the next meet is the same as always. Play well, get better and move on. It’s our last meet before Conference, so this is your last chance to learn something about your game before the pressure really kicks up,” Cohen said.
Arseneault sees the upcoming meet as another chance to improve and prepare for Conference.
“It will be a good chance to get ready for the big stage,” he said. “The mentality for tournaments in the regular season is to improve. Our goal was just to get better, and I think most guys saw most of that. We are hoping to improve continually until our conference meet at the end of the year.”