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SAU men's golf team in first-round hole at nationals

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Staff report | Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:52 PM CDT | () comments

The good news is that the St. Ambrose men’s golf team’s fifth-best score was the same as their best score in Tuesday’s opening round of the NAIA men’s national tournament at the Indiana National Golf Club in Plymouth, Ind.

So was their second, third and fourth.

The bad news? That score was a 6-over-par 78.

Taking the top four scores, that left the Bees a composite plus-24 and tied for 20th in the four-round affair, well back of the minus-4 posted by team leader Johnson & Wales of Florida.

Seniors Drew Chuipek, Tim Harrigan and Chris Leiser, junior Adam White and sophomore Dusty Drenth wound up tied for 77th after the opening round.

SAU, which will host the next two national tourneys at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., is bidding for its sixth straight top 20 finish, but might have to catch fire to match last year’s 12th-place showing and certainly will be hard-pressed to match the school’s all-time best fourth-place showing of two years ago.

Chuipek is chasing All-American status for a third straight year but will need to climb into the top 25. He finished fourth in 2006 and 21st last year.

The Bees men are the first of three Q-C college golf crews competing in national tournaments this month.

The St. Ambrose women’s team will head to Southern California on Saturday to compete in next week’s NAIA Nationals at Lake San Marcos Country Club in San Diego, Calif.

The Black Hawk men’s team will vie next week at the NJCAA Division II national tournament at Palm Valley Golf Course in Phoenix, where former Pleasant Valley golfer Matt Skahill will be looking to follow-up a sixth place finish at last year’s national junior college tourney.

The Braves men will be represented by former Rock Island prep Tyler Pitlik, former Moline Maroon Ryan Sergeant, and ex-Erie standout Callen Smith as well as freshman Casey Pyne of Bloomington, Ill.

The Bees women, ranked 18th in the most recent NAIA poll, will be led by seniors Nicole Keeney, a Davenport West grad, juniors Kelly Jansen (Bettendorf) and Megan Heller (Alleman), sophomore Kenzie Hein from Iowa City and Caitlin Childers of Elgin, Iowa.

Jansen was named Midwest Collegiate Conference Player of the Year earlier this week.