The North Idaho College men’s and women’s golf teams competed in the Montana State University-Billings Yellowjacket Spring Invitational at Pryor Creek Golf Course March 14 and 15 and then traveled to Salem, Ore., to play in the Corban Invitational at Creekside Golf Course March 18 and 19.
The men won the Yellowjacket Spring Invitational, overcoming a five-stroke deficit the second day to hold off host Montana State-Billings and Rocky Mountain College (Mont.), who tied for second.
NIC sophomore Austin Westphal, who recently signed a letter of intent to play golf at Montana State-Billings, tied for first place individually with Montana State’s Gage Huft. Both shot 148.
Five NIC men’s golfers finished in the top six, according to golfstat.com, including freshman Calvin Baty, who finished tied for third and shot the best round of the tournament his first round with a 68.
NIC sophomore Taylor Reed finished fifth and shot the best second round score with a 72.
Sophomore Spencer Skipper, who tied for third shooting a 150, said the wind played a factor in the tournament, but his team was able to rise above it better than the other teams in the field.
“I think that’s why we did so good the second day as a team because we just kind of stayed in it and still scored with how windy it was,” Skipper said.
On the women’s side, NIC took seventh. Sophomore Arlee Coleman led the way for the Cardinals tying for 12th and shooting a 171 in the two rounds.
“Competition-wise we played against most of those schools before but there was definitely some D-II schools there that put up some really low numbers,” Coleman said. “So we didn’t compete very well against them.”
Montana State-Billings won the tournament.
A few days later, the NIC men’s team placed second in Salem with Westphal finishing third.
Sophomore Dylan Morrison finished tied for 15th but was tied for first after the first round shooting a 73.
Skipper, who had the second best score for the Cardinals, finished 13th.
“I hit the ball really good,” Skipper said. “But, I didn’t play very good on the greens. Otherwise, I would have shot a lot better.”
Skipper said playing two tournaments in less than a week took a toll on the team and that the drive from Huntley, Mont., a suburb of Billings where their first tournament was played, to Salem lasted 15 hours. He thought the team struggled the last day at Salem because it was fatigued.
The NIC women finished fifth in Salem. Coleman finished sixth individually posting a 254 in three rounds of play.
“My mental game’s really together,” Coleman said. “It’s a lot better than it has been in the past. I hit the ball well and my putting’s really weak. So when I can improve my putting, my game will be a lot better all around I think.”
Concordia University (Ore.) won as a team and individually on both the men’s and women’s sides.
NIC was the only two-year school in both tournaments.
The men’s and women’s teams will tee it up again April 1 and 2 at the Concordia Golf Classic in Portland, Ore., before heading to Wilder, Idaho, April 8 and 9 for the College of Idaho Invitational.
