Men's golf April 10, 2009

Dutch in third at Wartburg Invitational

WAVERLY—Central College’s Andy Petersen (senior, Davenport, West HS) is tied for the individual lead and teammate Andrew Townsend (junior, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley HS) is tied for tenth while the Dutch men’s golf team sits in third place after the first round of the Wartburg Invitational.

Central, which shot 301 as a team, sits five strokes behind tournament leader St. Thomas Univ. (Minn.) (296) and four strokes behind host Wartburg College (296). The rest of the tightly bunched top 10 includes Luther College (302), Gustavus Adolphus College (303), Kirkwood CC (305), Luther white (307) Neb. Wesleyan Univ. (308), St. Olaf College (Minn.) (313) and Buena Vista Univ. and Wartburg Orange both with 314. The Central white team is just out of the top 10 in the 20-team tournament with a score of 315.

All five Central golfers shot in the 70s, led by Petersen with an even-par 72 and Townsend who shot a two-over 74. Sophomore Jason Harvey (Goldfield, Clarion-Goldfield HS) shot a 77 and juniors Justin Smool (Bagley, Panorama HS) and Matt Stock (Queen City, Mo., Schuyler County HS) each shot a 78.

“I’m pretty proud of the way we played as a team,” said head coach Charlie Estabrook. “It’s the first time everyone has shot in 70s this spring, and that’s definitely where we need to be.                    

“We expect Andy (Petersen) to be up there every week. He had five birdies today and was upset that he wasn’t able to keep his score under par, but when it’s as windy as today was par is a good score. And we’re really excited about Andrew (Townsend). He had our second lowest scoring average in the fall but has been struggling lately.

Central’s white team was led by freshman Matt Vegter (Morrison, Ill.) who shot a 77. Junior Joel Winters (Hampton, Hampton-Dumont HS) and freshman Brent Goodenow (Johnston) each put up a 79, senior Reid Petersen (Ankeny) shot an 80 and freshman Danny Pattee (Avoca, AHST HS) shot an 84.

“I think our white team played well today,” Estabrook said. “The younger guys are still learning about spring golf at the college level. The weather is different than it is in the fall and a lot of the courses are new to them and bigger than what they’ve played.”

Tomorrow Esatbrook will look for the Dutch to improve upon a solid start.

“We’ll come back out here and we’ll try to tighten things up,” he said. “I know we’ll be focused and working to cut out some of the little mistakes.”