Joris Etlin led the university with a tie for 17th.  The golf team finishes their first tournament ranked 10-12. Courtesy of Sports Information

The Lions golf team starts off the season with two tournaments. The Sam Hall Intercollegiate was held on Sept. 11 and 12 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate started on Sept. 18 and will finish today, Sept. 19 in Choudrant, Louisiana.  

The team placed 10th overall out of the 12 competing team in the Sam Hall Intercollegiate. Head Coach Jake Narro described his thoughts of the team’s finish. 

“Disappointing finish, obviously,” said Narro. “I thought we had something going a little today to improve our position, and we weren’t able to hold on to it. We didn’t finish any of our rounds off today. But we did have our first one of the year so hopefully, we knocked a little rust off and a little nerves and now know what we have to work on. We have another one real quick to prove ourselves in.” 

Two of the university’s players golfed solid match scores for the Sam Hall Intercollegiate. Junior William Meyers scored an even-par 71 in the final round and tied for 34th place while junior Joris Etlin recorded the second top-20 of his career tying for 17th place. 

The first day of the tournament, Etlin shot a career-best 3-under-par 68 in the first round. Narro describes Etlin’s progress of the first day of the tournament. 

“Joris had a great day,” said Narro. “He hit it well, and believe it or not, it could have been better. His ball striking was really, really good. A lot of greens in regulation, and if a few more putts had gone in for him, he would be leading the whole tournament.” 

The Jim Rivers Intercollegiate is a 54 hole men’s college tournament hosted by Louisiana Tech University. Narro is using the first tournament as a reference on what needs to be improved on for the Jim Rivers tournament. 

“What we’ve learned is that we’re in a 18 hole round,” said Narro. “We’re playing at 15 really good holes and then we’re making two or three holes that mess them up and really messes up the whole day. So, we’re just working on trying to become a little better finishers and also making our bad shots not quite as bad.”

This will be the first home tournament of the season for the golf team, and they will be competing against familiar rivals. 

“We have a couple conference foes their, Houston Baptist and UNO,” said Narro. “It’s always good to keep an eye on them and try to beat those guys throughout the year, and of course, we want to beat the host LAU Tech too.” 

The team comprised of three veteran players and four freshmen players will be traveling on Saturday to compete in the 12-team tournament.