The Ohio men’s golf team finished tied for 11th place at the 17-team Earl Yestingsmeier Invitational after posting a 48-over par team score of 888 for the tournament.

With a 302 yesterday, the Bobcats had their worst round of the tournament as a team, but coach Bob Cooley doesn’t see that as a concern as the fall season continues.

“The course is always the most difficult in the final round,” Cooley said. “The pin placements are always harder to reach and the scores are usually higher.”

Sophomore Stew Jamieson didn’t have much trouble reaching those pins. He led the Bobcats individually with a 4-over 214 for the tournament. That was enough to earn him a tie for 12th place in the overall individual standings.

“I worked a lot on my short game in practice this week, and that really helped,” Jamieson said.  “I didn’t hit the ball particularly well, but I was able to get up and down from pretty much anywhere.”

Bobcat sophomore Chad Warmbein finished tied for 37th place, posting a 12-over 222. Mark Phillips was next in line for the Bobcats with a 15-over 225, earning him a tie for 51st place.

Coach Cooley rated the team’s performance as “very, very average,” but seemed confident his team would progress.
“Each individual has a different thing to focus on,” Cooley said. “Some putting, some driving, everyone has their own little set of problems to improve on in practice.”

Jamieson seemed to echo the coach’s sentiments.

“We’re a young team,” Jamieson said. “If we keep working at it and improving, I think we’ll be able to compete with anybody.”

The other three Mid-American Conference schools participating in the event all finished in the top five. With a team score of a 2-over 842, the Toledo Rockets won the tournament.  Ball State secured fourth place with a team score of 851 and Bowling Green took the fifth spot with a team score of 858.

Austin Peay’s Grant Leaver won the individual title with a 4-under 206.

Ohio will next be in action at the Xavier Invitational in Cincinnati Oct. 1-2.