Last Monday and Tuesday, Biola’s golf team participated in the GSAC Regional
Qualifiers at the La Purisima golf course in Lompoc, Calif., which is ranked 33rd best in the nation, while being hosted by CSU San Marcos.

The windy and raining conditions made the course a rather difficult playing field and even delayed play for two hours, which made it even harder on the participants. Biola finished seventh overall and with only one player in the top 20 overall golfers there. Holy Names University (HNU) swept the tournament with a surprising lead of -15 strokes beneath second ranked California Baptist for their whole team overall. HNU also placed two of their players in the top of the bracket for individual players.
Biola ended the conference in 7th place, sliding in behind The Master’s College and Point Loma Nazarene University. Overall, Biola shot a 983, behind HNU who lead with a surprising 905.

Freshman Joshua Mathis, ranked highest in the standings for Biola, placed 18th overall and shot a 77-77-84. He ended the conference with only a +22 in the overall standings. Closely trailing Mathis was Freshman Jordan Swanson, who was shooting a competitive 81-79-86.

“In my opinion, I didn’t feel like it was my best performance personally,” Mathis said. “However, relative to the difficulty of the course and the harsh weather conditions the tournament went relatively well for the team as a whole.”

Also representing the Biola Eagles at the tournament was senior Mike Belleggie, who finished in 32nd, sophomore Sam Howell who ranked 34th individually and freshman Conner Penfold who ranked 39th.

“It was a disappointing way to end the season, but we’re excited for next season because we are a very young team and we expect it to be a successful year,” said Swanson, when reflecting on the tournament.

The team took a hard blow at the tournament, but are keeping their momentum by focusing on the future and preparing to come back with a strong season in the fall.