On the final day of the Big Ten Men’s Golf Championship, Northwestern moved up a spot to finish in sixth place in the team standings at the Pete Dye Course at the French Lick Resort in Indiana on Sunday afternoon.
The Wildcats shot eight over par to surpass Michigan State, who ended up finishing eighth, right behind seventh place Purdue.
Northwestern started off hot from the tees, but poor conditions in the second half hampered their push up the standings ladder.
A couple of freshman had a large impact on the links for the Wildcats on Sunday.
Andrew Whalen finished nine over for the tournament and two over for the day. Though he finished even on the back nine, his three bogeys on the front nine cost him some ground he couldn’t regain.
Wildcat Josh Jamieson was on par to finish around nine or 10 under par, nailing a birdy on three of his first four holes. He finished the front back nine at two under then turned to the front side of the course. However a costly double bogey on the first hole and a bogey on the second put Jamieson at over one for the day. The rest of the front nine got worse for the freshman, who finished four over par on the day.
The highlight of the tournament for the Wildcats was junior Jack Perry, who finished with a score of one over par for the third straight day at the Big Ten Men’s Golf Championship. Coming into the day, Perry was only two strokes away from second place. Still, despite some bogeys on the back nine on Sunday, Perry was still able to finish in seventh in the tournament. The junior secured his first career Big Ten championship top-10 finish.
With a slew of young talent and some veterans like junior Jack Perry and senior Nick Losole, Northwestern had to have come into the weekend with some higher hopes. However, some underperforming on the back half of the day from almost every player prevented the ‘Cats from jumping up another couple of spots in the standings.
The Illini won the tournament for the fourth straight year, finishing with a total of 11 over – a large nine-stroke gap between second place Minnesota.