The Valparaiso University men's golf senior Anthony Delisanti (Sanborn, N.Y. / Niagara Wheatfield) finished as the individual runner-up at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate, hosted by South Alabama at the par-71, 7239-yard Magnolia Grove Falls Course in Mobile, Ala. this week. His effort helped Valpo finish tied for third in a 13-team field. The teams concluded the tournament on Tuesday by closing out the second round and golfing the third round after Monday's play was disrupted by weather.
 
How It Happened

• Delisanti posted a glowing second round with a 63 (-8) before finishing the tournament with a Round-3 score of 71 (E). In his majestic second round, Delisanti had par or better on 17 of 18 holes including seven birdies and an eagle on the par-5 10^th hole. He also went par or better in 17 of 18 holes in Round 3, hitting par exactly on 16 of those holes.
• Delisanti finished the tournament with a 201 (-12), placing second in a 78-player field. He was four strokes behind South Alabama's Hugo Thyr, who was the individual medalist, and beat Auburn's Cayden Pope by two strokes for second.
• Golfing as an individual, sophomore Adam Melliere (Zionsville, Ind. / Zionsville) had the best score of any Beacon in Tuesday's third round, stroking a 68 (-3) to finish the tournament at t-23 with a 54-hole score of 216 (+3). He birdied five holes in Round 3.
• Senior Sam Booth (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) finished one stroke behind Melliere for the tournament at 217, tied for 27^th. All six Beacons playing in the tournament had scores of 74 or better in the third and final round.
• Valpo bettered its score by 10 strokes from Round 1 to Round 2, posting a 279 (-5) in the second round before finishing the event with a 287 (+3) for a 54-hole score of 855 (+3). The Beacons tied for third of 13, even with Jackson State and behind only South Alabama and UCF. Valpo's second-round score was the best of any team in the field.

Inside the Rounds

• Delisanti's Round-2 score of 63 tied a season best and was one stroke behind his career best. He also carded a 63 in the second round of the Ram Masters Invitational in September and his personal best of 62 came in the second round of the National Golf Invitational last May. His second round in this tournament tied for second in program history for 18-hole overall score.
• Delisanti's 18-hole score in relation to par of eight under marked a season best and ranks second in program history behind his program record of -10 in the second round of the NGI last season.
• Delisanti's 54-hole tournament score of 201 ranks tied for third in program history. Delisanti's 197 from this year's Ram Masters Invitational is the program record.
• In relation to par, Delisanti's 54-hole score of -12 ranks tied for seventh in program history.
• Valpo's team score of 855 (+3) was its second best of the season both overall and in relation to par. The 855 ranks tied for eighth in program history.
• Delisanti led the tournament in par-3 scoring at 2.75 and tied for the tournament lead in par-5 scoring average at 4.33. His 14 birdies were tied for fourth in the field.
• As a team, Valpo tied for second in the tournament in par-3 scoring at 3.08.
• Delisanti had his fifth top-10 finish of the season and the 25^th of his collegiate career.

 
Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring
"Our team is starting to get into a better rhythm with this spring season. We had our challenges in the first two tournaments, but this was our best tournament of the spring and our second best all year. Our ball-striking was much improved and our short game continues to get sharper, especially our chipping around the greens. We still have too many 3-putts and we're leaving a lot of putts inside of eight feet on the course, so we will continue to focus on our green reading and speed."
 
"In our second round, we really played some very efficient golf. Despite the wet conditions, we beat the entire field in score and our execution was very sharp. We had 19 birdies and an eagle and that production was spread across the entire team. We played the back nine at eight under with only three bogeys for the scores that counted. The guys were feeding off the team scoring momentum during the round, and it was a lot of fun to be a part of it."
 
"We ran out of daylight in finishing Monday's round, so we played 21 holes today. I was bummed that we couldn't play in the final group, since we couldn't reshuffle after finishing the second round. We actually had a terrific start with the third round, getting it to five under through nine holes. We played the last five holes of the back nine at seven over and no birdies, so that was a tough stretch for us. In the last six holes, we played those at three over, so we weren't able to get back to red figures under par for the finish."
 
"We had lots of positive takeaways from the tournament. Adam improved every round, and he had his best round of the season today. We had a lot of consistent scoring out of Sam Booth and Elliot for all three rounds. Sam Schmidt finished with two solid rounds and Rob finished with his best round of the year. It was a lot of fun to watch Anthony play at an exceptional level in the second round, stay in contention to win into the final nine holes and finish with another individual runner-up accolade. We're excited to compete again and carry the momentum forward.
 
Up Next
The Beacons will participate in the Golfweek/AGT Intercollegiate beginning on Monday, March 31 at True Blue Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, S.C. A link to live scoring will be available on ValpoAthletics.com.