ACU had its best performance yet at any tournament this past week, coming in sixth place out of 14 teams.
This tournament was familiar to the Wildcats, with the team having played in Little Rock last year, and, according to head coach Tom Shaw, gave the team an advantage.
“All of our players except one were returning players for this tournament,” Shaw said. “We felt very comfortable on the course and didn’t have to deal with many of the issues you typically face on a brand new course.”
That one player who had not played in the Little Rock Invitational was junior Zane Heusel from Edmond, Oklahoma. Heusel led ACU and tied for tenth place out of 84 total contenders. He started the tournament tied for 25th place but rose from there after a well-shot three rounds. Heusel’s total strokes for the tournament added up to an eagle. The best golfer out of the entire tournament hit 13 under.
“I was not as comfortable as other guys on the team since this was my first time playing there,” Heusel said. “I just go out, hit the ball and live with the results. I felt like if I put myself anywhere inside of 120 yards it was good. I was getting it up and down.”
ACU’s second-best player, senior Brian Choe from Coppel, hit just three over eagle causing him to drop to 23rd place.
ACU as a whole was nine strokes over and ended in sixth place. The home team of Little Rock came out on top and ended with a score of 18 strokes under par. The next best team to Little Rock was Lamar University, who came out a single stroke under par.
“We had to play extremely well to keep up with many of these teams and did exactly that,” Shaw said. “This shows a lot of improvement considering we were able to beat some teams that had previously beaten us.”
This tournament shows how well the team has progressed throughout the fall season. The first tournament of the fall season was the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate tournament where ACU placed 14th out of 21 teams.
As the team wraps up the fall season, ACU has one more tournament before going into a resting period prior to spring tournaments. The Wildcats will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii, for the Hoakalei CC Invitational, which will start on Monday, Oct. 25 and conclude Tuesday, Oct. 26.
