The temperature was not the only thing rising this week, as men’s golf brought the heat to the Biola Spring Invitational. With the program hosting a tournament for the first time, the men had an impressive second-place finish. Many of the Eagles had standout performances, but senior Kyle McAbee especially dominated the green through all three rounds of play.
McAbee started strong, shooting a birdie on the third hole of round one. He then shot even-par on the four par-5 holes and even had an eagle two holes later, standing out from his competitors. He carded a 77, leading the 27-golfer field at Bear Creek Golf Course in Murrieta, California.
Senior teammates Austin Bishop and Dominic Ariondo also came to compete during round one. They both birdied the fourth hole and went on to record scores of 80 and 88, respectively. These numbers helped the Eagles finish round one in third place, trailing behind first place Hawaii Pacific by only five strokes.
In day two of the competition, McAbee remained the leading Eagle through rounds two and three. He tied for fourth place on the leaderboard after scoring an 80 and 83 in the final two rounds. His consistency in maintaining par set him apart from others on the course. Austin Bishop also swung in the top 10 with a ninth-place finish.
Bishop made par on three-straight holes in the second round and then hit four-consecutive pars on holes 11 to 15 following a birdie during round three. With these scores, Bishop was at +3 on the back nine of the third round. This was Bishops’ best outing in a non-dual match competition this season, beating his best 18th place finish at the CSUSB Coyote Classic.
Bishop was not the only golfer performing best, as Ariondo had a season-best finish at 13th out of 27 golfers with an overall score of 254. Junior Kaden Page also found himself with a top-15 finish for the Eagles. The round-by-round improvement by juniors Scott Hatfield and Karson Dreher also contributed to Biola’s successful tournament.
Next up for Biola is the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational hosted by Stanislaus State. The first round of play is scheduled for April 1. This competition in Turlock, California will be the final outing for the men before they travel to Arizona for the PacWest Conference Championships at the end of April.
