Falcons Near Top of MAC Pack at Boilermaker Invitational

Saturday, April 21

West Lafayette, Ind.

All Day

Bowling Green State University

Boilermaker Invitational

April 21, 2012 | Men's Golf

By: by Matthew Daley, Athletic Communications Intern

DAY ONE STATS:

TEAM LEADERBOARD (.pdf) --- PLAYER LEADERBOARD (.pdf) ---- COURSE STATS (.pdf)

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- With the Mid-American Conference championships looming, the Bowling Green State University men's golf team came into this weekend's Boilermaker Invitational with the opportunity to prove itself against six of their eight MAC foes. After the first two rounds on Saturday (April 22), the Falcons find themselves tied with or ahead of all but one MAC team.

Playing on the Kampen course of the Birck Boilermaker golf complex at Purdue University, Bowling Green began the day with a solid 298 in the first round. That total earned a tie for third place with #21 (Golfweek/Sagarin) Kent State after 18 holes. They trailed #35 Illinois by only one stroke. The Falcons were only five shots behind #30 Wichita State, who led the event after the first round.

The major player in BGSU's first round effort was Wes Gates. Gates carded a 69 over his first 18 holes; the total tied his career best round and also tied for the best round by any Falcon this season. It was also the only sub-70 first round of the tournament and ultimately one of only three sub-70 rounds for the entire day.

Gates began slowly and was two-over-par after six holes. However, he birdied six of the next 11 holes to climb back to three-under-par and take the tournament lead after one round. Overeall, his two-round total of nine birdies tied for the most by any player on Saturday.

Chris Melvin also played an important role in the first round. He began his round with a birdie and finished the round with two others, as he shot a two-over-par 74. Charlie Olson also recovered well after a slow start. He sank three birdies over his last eight holes to finish with a 76.

Both Parker Hewit and Drew Preston shot 79 for the first 18 holes.

In the second round, the Falcons finished with only one shot more than in the first. The composite 299 gave BGSU a total of 597 for the day's 36 holes. The team dropped three spots in the standings and finished tied for sixth place, as the highly ranked teams in the event drifted to the top of the leaderboard in the second round.

The Falcons lead eighth-place Michigan State by six strokes; tournament host Purdue is ninth and trails BGSU by seven. The team trails fifth-place Indiana by two strokes. Tournament co-leaders Kent State and Iowa (587) are ten shots ahead.

Among the seven MAC schools in the event, the Falcons trail only Kent State and are tied with Northern Illinois. Eastern Michigan (615) is 18 strokes behind BGSU and NIU. Akron (616), Toledo (625) and Miami (628) are even further behind.

Individually, Gates had a lot of difficulty over the first nine holes of the second round, but he recovered to shoot three under par over the final seven holes. He finished with a 77 in the second round and a two-over-par 146 for the day. He is tied for seventh currently, but he stands only two strokes outside of second place. Wichita State's Rafael Becker (140) leads after the first day and is six shots ahead of Gates.

Olson climbed into the top 20 by shooting a 72 in the second round. He shot birdie or par on 16 of 18 holes in the round. He ended the day with a combined 148 (76-72) and is tied for 20th. Olson is only two strokes behind Gates.

Hewit and Preston continued to be locked together in terms of score. Each shot a 75 in the second round after shooting matching 79s over the first 18 holes. The seniors, in their final regular season event as Falcons, are tied for 41st after each shot 154 on Saturday.

Melvin finished Saturday's play at 157 after shooting an 83 in the second round.

Freshman Joe Cooper played as an individual for the Falcons, and he shot back-to-back 79s for a Saturday total of 158.

Final round play for the Boilermaker Invitational begins on Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. with a shotgun start. Live stats can be accessed through Golfstat here.