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Golf completes fall season with 10th place finish

Jeff Townsend, For The Miami Student

Miami University's men's golf team concluded its fall season finishing 10th out of 12 teams at the Georgetown Intercollegiate earlier this week. Despite finishing near the bottom, the team played much better the second day of the tournament with a third round score of 10-over par.

"We got off to a really rough start ... but everyone did a great job of not letting that start affect them," Head Coach Zac Zedrick said. "We got some birdies and got close to par and had a solid finish."

This is the second consecutive tournament the RedHawks have shot several strokes better the second day than the first. Two weeks ago at the Firestone Invitational Miami shot six strokes better in the final round and was 13 strokes better in the final round this week. Zedrick looks for more consistency out of his team moving forward.

"If you can be focused and stay in the moment during the shot and then be accepting of it and play with a good attitude and have confidence with yourself and your abilities, typically your play is more consistent," Zedrick said.

Junior Austin Kelly led the Red and White at 7-over par, putting him in the top-20 overall. Kelly became the fifth different RedHawk in as many tournaments to record the team's lowest score. Zedrick views this in a positive way, and said some of the best golf teams around the country have several players who produce, not just two or three.

The coach is still waiting, however, for his players to produce at the same time.

"We have guys not finishing in the top-20 who are capable of [finishing there]," Zedrick said. "The focus is going to be on attitude and mentality. There are things in competition you have no control over ... the one thing you can bring with you is a strong and resilient mindset."

Still, all five golfers were separated by only 10 strokes. The 10-stroke gap was significantly smaller than the past three tournaments, which had gaps of 14, 17 and 15, respectively.

This time around, Miami received better contribution from their fourth and fifth guys than usual.

One player who improved his score was freshman Daniel Schwarz, who competed in his third tournament of the year. He shot a 74 in both the first and third rounds, a career best, and finished with a tournament average of 76.67, another career best. Zedrick sees Schwarz as a major part of the RedHawks' future.

"Daniel has grown a lot since he's played here ... he's extremely talented and he's not even close to where I think he's going to get to as a player," Zedrick said. "He's getting a good feel for what it takes for him to be prepared to compete. He's really learning the skillsets of great players and is doing a great job - especially on the mental side - to focus on the things he needs to work on to compete."

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Redshirt junior Mark MacDonald finished second on the team and tied for 24th overall at 8-over par. Senior Brett Tomfohrde finished 32nd at 10-over par and senior Ben Peacock finished tied for 51st at 15-over par. Schwarz rounded out the 'Hawks at 17-over par, finishing in a tie for 54th.

This was the Red and White's final tournament of the fall season. The team begins its spring circuit Feb. 11-12, competing in Mid-American Match Play in Dade City, Fla.