Central falters at Dubuque men’s golf tourney

Central College

PELLA — Ranked No. 17 in a Division III preseason coaches’ poll, the Central College men’s golf team couldn’t find its touch around the greens and found itself in 11th place after the first round of the 18-team University of Dubuque Fall Invitational Saturday.

Competing at the par-70 Dubuque Golf and Country Club, the Dutch shot an uncharacteristic 321, well out of contention. Host Dubuque fired a sizzling 284 and holds a commanding 18-shot lead over second place Clarke. Wartburg is fifth at 311with Simpson at 312. Central’s second unit, the White squad, is seventh at 314.

Junior Desmond Stoll (Lockport, N.Y.) is tied for 16th at 77 while David Watson (junior, San Diego, Calif., Patrick Henry HS) carded a 79 and shares 28th at 79, Jared Nepomuceno (sophomore, Corona, Calif., Santiago HS) shot 81, Jacob Anderson (senior, Treynor) had 84 and Adam Squires (junior, Waterloo, Columbus HS) had 86.

For the White team, Sam Houge (sophomore, Urbandale) matched Stoll with a 77, while senior Mike Maller (Davenport, Central HS) had 78, Jon Prescott (junior, Mendota, Ill.) shot 79, Brock Morris (freshman, Manchester, West Delaware HS) had 80 and Clay Corwin (junior, Faribault, Minn., Shattuck St. Mary’s HS) had 81.

Coach Chad Green’s assessment was direct.

“That was not Central golf today,” he said. “We need to go out there tomorrow and prove to ourselves that we’re a better team than that.”

Green said an erratic short game was the cause of much of Central’s woes.

“I thought we actually hit the ball pretty well,” he said. “But once we got around the green, we struggled.”

Green noted that three of the 10 players on the two Dutch squads had more than 40 putts.

But the Dutch, playing in just their second tourney of the fall, expect better results on Sunday, when the final 18 holes are played, Green said.