Biola men’s golf competed in their final regular season tournament at the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational at the Turlock Golf & Country Club. Although they finished in 17th place overall, the men held their own against the tough competition, which included four teams in the top 20 in NCAA Division II and eight teams ranked in the top 50. They ended day two just 12 strokes behind Notre Dame de Namur University, showing many notable individual performances.
STRONG STROKES
Senior Austin Bishop led the Eagles, shooting a 75 and 77 in the two rounds they played on day one of the tournament. He consistently shot no more than one stroke over par, with three birdies to land him 58th overall at the end of the first day. He came back on the final round in day two, finishing just one stroke off par with a 73, and jumped 10 spots on the leaderboard to 48th place overall.
Junior Karson Dreher and senior Kyle McAbee also stood out by shooting eagles on the first day. Dreher’s eagle came on the par-5 hole two during his first round. McAbee stroke his eagle in the shorter par-5 15th hole. Despite McAbee hurting his score in the final round on day two with a trio of double bogeys, he got by with a three-round tally of 241 (+25) tied for 80th overall.
HIGH PERFORMANCE FROM EAGLES
The Eagle that broke his personal best three-round score was junior Scott Hatfield. Hatfield turned it on for Biola, shooting his best round of the season with a score of 74 in round one. This performance included an incredible 10 pars, three birdies and zero holes over bogey. He followed this tremendous score with an 82 in round two, positioning himself to beat his three-round best of 257 in the final round. On the final day, Hatfield did just that as he ended the tournament with a score of 79. With his career best score, he was second in performance in Turlock, California for the Eagles.
Senior Dominic Ariondo and junior Kaden Page look to bounce back in their final competition that is quickly approaching at the end of April. Ariondo had a solid day one, shooting even on par-3s, but struggled to do the same on day two when he bogeyed all but one of the par-3 holes. He still managed to card below 80 on day two with a score of 78. The determined Page had an eight-stroke improvement from his last outing, finishing the trip with a 246 (+30).
The men will aim to improve their scores even more in their final tournament as an official Biola athletics program. They will hit the course one last time at the PacWest Men’s Golf Championship at the Wigwam Golf Club in Litchfield Park, Arizona on April 22-24. Although ranked seventh of eight teams in the PacWest, expect to see big surprises from the Eagles as they strive to upset their competition in the championship.
