Central’s Livingston takes men’s golf tourney lead
Central College
IOWA CITY—Central College’s Justin Livingston (sophomore, Winterset) took over the individual lead after three rounds of the Iowa Conference men’s golf tournament Friday.
The Dutch also remain atop the team standings but saw their lead narrow after some struggles at the par-72 Finkbine Golf Course. The 72-hole tourney concludes Saturday.
Livingston, who trailed Sam Herriman of Loras College by three shots after the second round, stands at 76-73-77—226, one stroke in front of Herriman (73-73-81—227) and Loras teammate Joe Leibried (77-76-74—227).
“Justin played pretty solid,” coach Chad Green said.
After bolting to a 22-stroke advantage in the 36-hole team standings, the Dutch could manage only Friday’s fifth-best round at 326. Central is at 313-289-326—928 with Luther at 324-303-316—943 and Loras at 319-305-320—944. The first 36 holes of the tournament were played April 15-16 at the Lake Creek Country Club at Storm Lake.
Jason Harvey (senior, Goldfield, Clarion-Goldfield HS) is fourth individually at 78-71-79—228 with Brent Messmore (junior, Hudson) tied for 12th at 79-72-86—237, Drew Osier (sophomore, Austin, Minn.) tied for 14th at 80-75-84—239 and Alex Huyser (senior, Sully, Lynnville-Sully HS) tied for 29th at 86-73-88—247.
“We just didn’t play well,” Green said. “We’ve had a lot of good scores this year and I’ve been waiting to see if we’d have a bad round, but this was not a good time for it to happen
“Still, we’ve got a 15-shot lead and tomorrow’s a new day.”
Temperatures were more comfortable than in recent outings, Green said.
“It was a little windy but nothing compared to what we’ve had earlier this spring,” Green said. “The greens were tough. They’re hard and fast. It was hard to stick shots and hard to get up and down but we still should have shot better than we did.”
The team champion receives a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament May 10-13 at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C. Central has made 29 NCAA tourney appearances, all since 1976, while claiming 28 conference championships.
