Sept. 19-20, Ball State men's golf traveled to Cincinnati for the Bearcat Invite. The Cardinals finished 6th out of 13 teams shooting 861.
The Cardinals lineup included sophomore Kash Bellar, senior Joey Wiseman, redshirt sophomore Griffin Hare, graduate student Joey Ranieri and redshirt sophomore Ali Khan.
“We still need to continue to put an emphasis on finishing the rounds better,” head coach Mike Fleck said. “Those precious shots are invaluable especially when you are looking at a team competition.”
Monday - Round One
At the end of round one, Ranieri led the Cardinals with a 5-under-par score of 66. Ranieri had a bogey-free round with three birdies, one eagle and 14 pars.
“It was a fun round,” Ranieri said. “I kind of switched up my mentality, I had previously kind of been playing a little scared and trying to just shoot a score. I changed it up to just trying to make a bunch of birdies. So I was able to just change things up, play more aggressively and swing a little more freely.”
Khan would be Ball State's second best with a 3-under-par 68.
Hare shot 1-over-par 72, Wiseman posted 4-over-par 75, and Bellar would finish with an 8-over-par 79.
Monday - Round Two
Bellar led the team in the second round with an even-par round of 71.
Ranieri and Khan both added two strokes to their under-par showings and shot 2-over-par 73, Hare posted a performance of 5-over-par 76, while Wiseman shot 7-over-par 78.
“We finished better as a team and we moved up and got some really good head-to-head wins, against the Big Ten team [Rutgers], an SEC team in Kentucky and then Sam Houston State who were in the NCAA Finals two years ago,” Fleck said. “So definitely this round we can hopefully build some momentum off of.”
Tuesday - Round Three
The third day opened up with a delay due to fog. The tee times were pushed back two hours to 10 a.m.
Hare led the team in the final round with a 2-under par 69 showcased by an eagle on hole four.
Ranieri would also find himself under par, shooting 1-under-par 70. Ranieri's performance was able to crack the top ten, placing him 6th individually with a total score of 4-under-par.
“We’ve had guys play well individually in each of our three events,” Ranieri said. “We have had three different guys so now it is time for all of us to play well. I believe in our squad and I know we can do it. Now it is just believing we can all do it at the same time.”
Wiseman shot 2-over-par 72, Bellar had a 4-over-par 75 performance, followed by Khan who posted a 6-over-par 77
“We’ve got a couple of weeks off now, this has been a pretty busy stretch having three events in a row and hosting at home,” Fleck said. “We’ll be able to go home and regroup and get a little competitive again with some qualifying.”
The Cardinals will be back in action at the Purdue Fall Invitational Oct. 10-11 in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“Our goal will be to go over to Purdue in a few weeks and compete for one of the top spots there and do the same thing again at Dayton at NCR [Country Club] to finish off the fall,” Fleck said.
Contact Elijah Poe with comments at elijah.poe@bsu.edu or on Twitter @ElijahPoe4.
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