Sports
Men’s Golf: Ohio Falls At Mid-American Match Play
By: Sarah Rachul
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The Ohio University men’s golf team completed Monday’s Mid-American Match Play at Lake Jovita Golf Course in Dade City, Fl. with two losses to conference foes, Ball State and Miami.
The first round featured the top six Ohio players pitted against the top six from Ball State. Out of the six matches, the Bobcats finished with only one victory and one tie.
Freshman Brad Burgess was the lone victor for the Bobcats, winning his match against Ball State’s Brodie Williams with a final of 5 and 4. While he lost his second match to Scott Cahill of Miami University, Burgess was focused on his win and looking to do continue his play Tuesday.
“I hit the ball very well (Monday) and was able to take control of the match early. I just played my game and made sure he couldn’t get back into the match. Hopefully I can do the same (Tuesday),” Burgess said.
Thomas Leech was the other golfer who managed to tie his match against Ball State’s Tony Lazzara, the second best finish of any Ohio golfer. Leech went on to lose his match against Miami. He claims it was weaknesses in his short game that cost him the match.
“I played pretty well, but I missed a few short putts that cost me the match,” Leech said.
The second round of matches was played against fifth seated Miami University. The RedHawks took every match against Ohio and knocked the Bobcats down to the seventh place bracket.
Team captain Byron Firestone had some comments on his team’s play for the day. “We are just struggling to close out matches. We had Ball State beat after 12 holes and then had a bad stretch of holes to lose two or three matches that we had control of. I will admit to being one of them,” said captain Byron Firestone, who lost both of his matches Monday.
The Bobcats take on the Akron men’s team Tuesday, as they battle for the seventh place spot. Akron has competed well both in their fall season last year and so far this spring, so they will not be an easy test for the Bobcats.
Firestone, who will be facing Akron’s Charlie Bull, knows that it will be a hard match but hopes that his team will finally be able to play to their true potential.
“Akron is a tough team, but we can be just as tough if we play decent. We have a good team we just need to shake off some winter cob webs and get the ball in the hole,” Firestone said.
The Bobcats will have their work cut out for them when they tee off Tuesday against the Zips.