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RedHawks finish fourth at The Rutherford

Joe Gieringer, For The Miami Student

The Miami University men's golf team found themselves in fourth place overall at the end of Sunday after shooting a final round score of 19-over par, as they improved each round at The Rutherford.

High winds and cool temperatures, which resulted in higher scores, marked this past weekend leading to frustrating finishes as Miami finished 65-over par, 16 shots behind Bowling Green State University, finishing 49-over par.

Junior Ben Peacock and freshman Luke Shaughnessy both tied for ninth individually for the RedHawks, each shooting a 14-over par for the tournament. Junior Brett Tomfohrde finished tied for 19 at 17-over par after shooting a four-over par 75 Sunday. Freshmen Scott Cahill and Brantley Kushner contributed to Miami's successful weekend, finishing 43 at 24-over par and 66 at 31-over par, respectively.

Head Coach Zac Zedrick, who has mentioned a team goal of better finishes in the remaining tournaments, was happy with the team's progress and overall play in The Rutherford.

"That's one of our goals, to finish in the top half of the field," Zedrick said. "We left a little bit out there the first round but came back out and made improvements."

The team was excited as well; this was the best finish the RedHawks have had in stroke play this season.

"They were encouraged and happy about how they played," Zedrick said. "One of our standards is presence; just being in the moment, the competition. No matter what sport it is, the people that perform the best are in the moment. And we're starting to see how it pays off. It's not how well you play; it's how well you deal with adversity."

Peacock was enthusiastic about the progress he saw his team, and himself, make this weekend.

"It was frustrating to get off to a poor start; I shot an 82 the first round," Peacock said. "I tried to stay patient and score as well as I could, and did a good job staying in the moment ...We [all] gained confidence. Everybody's feeling pretty good about heading into the end of the season."

Progress seemed to be the theme for the RedHawks this weekend. Tomfohrde said though a fourth place finish was good, the team could have played better in the first round.

"We felt really good," Tomfohrde said. "But we all felt we could do a lot better. We were smarter about our decision making the second and third rounds."

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Miami has a short week of practice this week, as they leave Thursday for The Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa City, Iowa. The RedHawk golfers will each focus in individual areas of improvement, but will focus on improvement and preparation as a team, according to Zedrick.

"The main thing is really, it's a couple things, like improving individual differences, competing as much as possible, and the guys are doing the work at home that translates into playing well under the gun," Zedrick said. "Each day is really important. If you prepare the right way, you give yourself a chance to be competitive."

Miami will resume play April 14 playing 36 holes in the first day of The Hawkeye Invitational.