Disappointing finish for golf

May 7th, 2010 | By Daniel Agostino | Section: Sports

The season ended abruptly and with much disappointment for the Grinnell Men’s Golf team last Saturday at the Midwest Conference (MWC) Golf Championships. The Pioneers had been anticipating this tournament all season with hopes of bringing home the title.   Unfortunately, they did not perform as well as they would have liked.  However, in a field of nine competitors they still placed a respectable fifth overall with a total score of 994.

Head Coach Brian Jaworski said that the team was disappointed because they weren’t expecting their season to come to an end quite so soon.

“We take responsibility that we did not play anywhere near what our goal was, [but the team] never gave up,” Jaworski said. “There is no place to hide on a golf team and when things don’t go your way it takes extra special competitors to keep grinding and show no signs of giving up.”

At the MWC Championships, Peter Marsho ’12 was just three shots from the lead on Thursday, the opening day.  On the second day he fell slightly to six shots off the lead, and was tied for fourth place in the tournament.  He finished as Grinnell’s top performer in 15th place with a score of 244.  Carlos Lu ’10 and Ian Luby ’13 both tied at 27th place with scores of 255.  Alex McDonald ’11 tied for 34th place with a score of 258.

Marsho, who had a successful weekend as an individual player, was quick to discount his personal accomplishment in favor of team solidarity.
“In order to be a team you have to be able to trust every single person, you have to be an ideal team member,” Marsho said. “[The tournament was] a clear disappointment, we went in thinking we had a chance of victory. But that doesn’t define a season.  We had a lot of other successes.”

The weekend’s results aside, the Grinnell golf team has had a successful and even history-making year, setting a new school record with a low score of 301.  They also won the first golf meet title for Grinnell College in more than two decades. Pete Kieselbach ’10 won the first individual title for a Grinnell player since 2002.

In addition to their early accomplishments, at the end of April the team nearly matched their new record with a 302 at the Scot-Fire Classic.  Along with Kieselbach and Marsho, Lu, McDonald and Luby led the team through the season with strong performances.

“I’m disappointed that the season ended without an MWC Championship because that was our goal going into the season,” Kieselbach said. “Even still, I’ve never been more proud to say I’m a part of the Grinnell Men’s Golf team.  It’s been an honor and privilege to wear the Honor G logo for four years, and that is largely because I’ve been lucky to have great teammates and a coach that I consider to be a mentor and major influence in my life, Coach Jaworski.  One tournament can’t and doesn’t change that.”