by Eva Dean Folkert
By winning this weekend's Lou Collins Memorial Invitational, the Hope College men's golf team showed that individual sports played a team really do rely on the sum of all parts.
The Flying Dutchmen took home the first-place trophy at the 14-team event hosted by Olivet College at Bedford Valley Country Club when, after finishing tied with Trine University at 599 strokes over the two-day event, the draw was broken by the score of the players whose round did not figure into team totals on Saturday. (In collegiate team golf, the top four scores, out of five, count toward the team total.)
For Hope, that player was sophomore Logan Dewitt of Zeeland, Michigan (Holland Christian), who fired a 78 on Saturday. His "throwaway" score was three strokes better than his Trine counterpart and helped give Hope the victory in its first competition of 2021.
On Friday, the Flying Dutchmen trailed by just one stroke as they recorded a round of 300. On Saturday, they posted a 299.
Lou Collins Memorial Invitational Website
"Our consistency and team depth were outstanding this weekend," said head coach Scott Lokers. "That was true of our starting five, but if you look at the scores of our players who played as individuals, they had good consistency and depth, too.
"Our guys were just having a lot of fun out there together."
Junior Jack Crawford of Carmel, Indiana (Carmel) and sophomore Will Robson of Grand Rapids, Michigan (East Grand Rapids) led the Flying Dutchmen with identical rounds of 73-75 for the two-day event. Their 148-stroke total tied them for fifth place overall.
Seth Almquist fired a total 149 with rounds of 76-73. The junior from Minneapolis, Minnesota (Wayzata) placed in a tie for 10th place
Freshman Jack Guerrera and DeWitt each fired a total of 156. Guerrera had rounds of 80-76 while DeWitt carded 78s on both days.
Playing as individuals, freshman John Barce had rounds of 76-74 (150); freshman Ben Jackson recorded 74-77 (151); freshman Will Webb shot 79-72 (151).; and junior Tim Wageman of Chesterfield, Michigan (Saline) finished with 76-79 (155)
Three MIAA schools topped the event. As Hope and Trine went 1-2, Calvin University took third place with a 603 (306-297). Day-one leader Siena University finished in fourth place with a 606 (299-307).
"I anticipated that we would have strong MIAA teams this year, and this tournament showed that to be true," Lokers added. "But it's always nice to play with and against teams outside of our league. Today we played in groups with players from Siena and UM-Dearborn and that made things different and interesting. So, while I like to see where we are in relationship with our league, I also like get some experience against teams outside of our league."
Hope returns to action on Tuesday, Sept. 7 with the first MIAA Jamboree at Duck Lake Country Club. The event, hosted by Albion College, starts at 1 p.m.
