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4-20-09
MONDAY ROUND-UP
Dan Woltman shot a 5-under par 67 Sunday and came back from a five-stroke deficit to tie Penn State’s Kevin Foley for first place at the Boilermaker Invitational in West Lafayette, Ind. It is the fourth time in Woltman’s University of Wisconsin golf career that he has earned medalist honors.
Woltman’s 67 in the final round was the best round of the day for any player and matched his opening round. He shot a 73 in the second round and entered the final round at 4 under, five strokes behind Foley. His 5-under round, combined with Foley’s even-par 72, gave Woltman a share of medalist honors. Woltman's three-round total of 207 was the second-best 54-hole score of his Badger career and tied for fifth-lowest in school history.
Among the players Woltman finished ahead of this weekend were Indiana's Jorge Campillo, who came into the tournament as the second-ranked individual in the country, and Michigan State’s Jack Newman, who competed in this year’s Masters. This was Woltman’s 12th top-10 finish as a Badger.
Behind Woltman, Wisconsin finished in fourth place as a team in the 18-team event. Four of the five Badgers shot 72 or better on Sunday as the Badgers moved up from a tie for sixth place after two rounds. UW’s third-round score of 282 is tied for the 15th-lowest round in school history. Illinois won the event, finishing 11 strokes ahead of UW.
Seniors Pat Duffy and Tyler Obermueller tied for 27th place with a three-round total of 4-over 220. Duffy’s score was his best of the season. Danny Zimmerman shot his best round of the tournament on Sunday, firing a 72 to move up 16 spots to finish in a tie for 41st place. Junior Jordan Elsen rounded out the Badger five, finishing in a tie for 55th.
Wisconsin takes next week off before it travels to the Big Ten Championships, May 1-3 in University Park, Pa.
The Wisconsin women’s golf team finished 11th Sunday at the 15-team Lady Buckeye Invitational in Ohio. The Badgers were led by junior Molly Schemm, whose three-round total of 234 was good for a share of 26th place.
Schemm shot a 3-over par 75 in Sunday’s final round, making birdie on three of her first seven holes. It was Schemm’s best round of the tournament. Schemm shot 79-80 in the first two rounds to finish the tournament at 234.
Sophomore Carly Werwie was the only other UW golfer to record a pair of rounds in the 70s, shooting a 79 in the opening round and a 77 in the second round before carding an 82 on Sunday. Her three-round score of 238 put her in a tie for 44th place.
One shot back of Werwie was junior Kelsey Verbeten. She followed her opening-round 75 with an 81 on Saturday afternoon and an 83 in the final round. She finished in a tie for 46th at 23-over 239.
Senior Isabel Alvarez and freshman Jessie Gerry rounded out the Badger five. Alvarez earned a share of 65th with a score of 248 while Gerry’s 253 put her in a tie for 75th.
Wisconsin will move on to the Big Ten Championships next weekend, April 24-26, in West Lafayette, Ind.
The Marquette University’s men’s golf team opened the 2009 Big East Championship with a team score of 4-over-par 292 and are tied for third place with St. John’s University following first-round action Sunday at Lake Jovita G&CC in Dade City, Fla.
Four Marquette players – freshman Matt Haase, sophomore Kelly Kretz and seniors Dustin Schwab and Mike Van Sickle – finished at 1-over 73 at the par-72, 7,031-yard South course.
“I feel we could have been better today,” Schwab said. “It's encouraging that we all kept it around par. I had a lot of good putts today that just didn’t go in and there’s not much you can do about it. Tomorrow, if we can just get a couple of shots better per guy, we’ll still be OK.”
A familiar setting for the Golden Eagles, MU had played the South course earlier this spring at the Ron Smith USF Invitational, which the team also played at in 2007 and 2008. Lake Jovita also was the site of the 2006 Big East Conference Men’s Golf Championship.
“I don’t think we adapted quick enough to how the conditions were,” head coach Tim Grogan said. “If we would have done that earlier, we’d probably be within five (strokes) of the lead.”
Fast fairways and even quicker greens put a premium on accuracy and putting, as only Louisville and Seton Hall fired team scores that were under par. The Cardinals lead the 12-team field after day one at 6-under 282 with SHU three strokes back at 285.
Haase was 3-over following a bogey on the par-4 16th, but closed with back-to-back birdies after hitting his second shot out of bunkers on both 17 and 18.
Kretz made birdie on hole 10 to move to 3-under on the day, but double bogey on hole 11 triggered three more bogeys over the next five holes. Kretz then drove the green on the par-4, 362-yard No. 17 to pick up his team-best fifth birdie of the day.
“I was kind of disappointed with the way I finished,” Kretz said. “I thought I was really hitting the ball well with the exception of maybe two swings, which cost me some shots, and I never really putted it that well all day. I feel good about tomorrow. Hopefully I get just as many birdies without any bogeys.”
Ben Sieg, who shot a first-round 78, owns Marquette’s first tee time for today’s second round of the 54-hole tournament, which was scheduled to start at 7 a.m. Sieg will tee off at 9:30 a.m.
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