The Valparaiso University men's golf team played the first 36 holes of the 54-hole Hawkeye Invitational, hosted by the University of Iowa at the par-72, 7432-yard Blue Top Ridge at Riverside in Riverside, Iowa on Monday. This marks the final regular-season tournament for the Beacons, who are preparing for the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
 
How It Happened

• Sophomore Rob Politza (Lemont, Ill. / Lemont Township) led the way among Beacons in the five-player lineup, needing 151 strokes over the 36 holes, putting himself tied for 43^rd of 75 on the player leaderboard. Politza stroked a 76 in Round 1, tied for the best score among players in the lineup, before following up with a 75 in Round 2 to lead the team outright.
• Politza eagled the par-5 fourth hole in the first round, but was plagued by a triple on Hole 1. He birdied four holes in Round 2.
• Golfing as an individual, freshman Brayden Fetzer (Trumbull, Conn. / Fairfield Prep [IMG Academy]) shared the Valpo lead on Monday at 151. He led the Beacons outright with a 75 in Round 1 before following with a 76 in the afternoon round. He birdied three holes in Round 2, while a relatively clean scorecard aided his Round-1 efforts as he was par or better on 14 of the 18 holes.
• Redshirt senior Ryan Somerville (Aurora, Ontario / Aurora) finished the day at 153 (76-77, t-52), second among players in the Valpo lineup.
• The Beacons are tied for 13^th with Missouri State entering Tuesday's third and final round. Valpo posted a 613 (306-307) on Monday. Host Iowa leads the tournament at 565, while No. 106 Ryan Shellberg of the Hawkeyes is running away with medalist honors as he has a seven-stroke lead and is 13 under par.

Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring
"In the first round today, we were only able to manage six birdies and you can match that against the equivalent of four double-bogeys. That formula isn't going to work for us, especially when you add another 25 bogeys. Our accuracy off the tee and proximity to the pins on greens must improve to give us more birdie opportunities. We are still struggling with the speed of our putts, even though the green-reading has been sufficient. All of these areas have to improve for us to score better in these competitions."
 
"We had a small improvement in birdies in the second round, but nine is still not enough. Add to that three double-bogeys and another 29 bogeys, and the scoring results were almost identical to the first round. We had good front nine scores by Rob and Ryan and a solid back nine score by Brayden in the second round. Our execution simply has to be sharper tomorrow and we need to do a better job when we miss shots, hitting to the most ideal positions in the fairway and on the green."
 
Up Next
The third and final round of the Hawkeye Invitational will take place on Tuesday at Blue Top Ridge GC in Riverside, Iowa. A shotgun start will be utilized at 9 a.m. with a link to live scoring via Clippd available on ValpoAthletics.com.