The Lipscomb men’s golf team capped a successful season with a fifth place finish in the 2014 Atlantic Sun Men’s Golf Championship.
The Bisons overcame a 12 stroke deficit in the final round of action on Tuesday to leap Jacksonville for fifth place, the highest finish in the A-Sun tournament in school history.
“We work processing things that we do on the golf course, and we’ve been working on those stringently for the last four months,” head coach Will Brewer said. “I think our team rose to the occasion. We all kind of sold out and believed in what we were trying to do, and it came together that last day.
“We talked about moving up to the fifth spot potentially. 12 shots is a lot, but we felt like if we played well and they didn’t play quite as well then we could do it. Fortunately it worked out,” Brewer said.
Finishing in the top five of a conference with six of the nation’s top 100 teams took a great overall team performance from Lipscomb. Head Coach Will Brewer was proud of how the team performed in the tournament.
“We set some goals this year, and we accomplished most of them,” Brewer said. “We wanted to finish in the top three to five in the conference, and with six teams ranked in the top 100, we knew that would be a challenge. Fortunately we kept getting better and better as the season went on.
“I’m very pleased with our program, and where we are right now. We’ve got great momentum and we’re ready to keep moving,” Brewer said.
During the final round, junior Caston Roberts led the Bisons with a score of two-under par 70, the best score of the day for the 50-player field. Roberts’ team-leading, three-round total score of 227 was good enough to finish tied for 17th in the tournament field.
“Caston has played well since mid-February,” Brewer said. “He’s been a little bit inconsistent at times, but has played consistently in our top one or two every week. We had been working on some technical things, and we kind of nipped them in the bud right before the second round.”
Dustin Wilder concluded his golf career at Lipscomb with a final score of 235, low enough for 35th in the tournament. Wilder was the only senior to participate in the A-Sun championship for the Bisons.
“He obviously was a great leader for us, he and Ryan Terry as captains this season did a great job with that. In the tournament he led the practice rounds. He was the only player who had played the golf course before this, so he helped them get around it and learn what to do and what not to do.” Brewer said.
“He’s the type of guy we want to recruit here at Lipscomb, strong character, strong integrity, really wants to play on the next level,” Brewer said.
Lipscomb will be losing seniors Wilder, Terry, Tyler Leroy and Nathan Mueting.
During the season, the Bisons won two tournaments for their first victories since 2008. The wins came at tournaments hosted by Murray State and UT-Martin.
“The highlight of our season was the win at UT-Martin. The fifth place finish [in the A-Sun Championship] was probably a better accomplishment because of the competition level,” Brewer said.
With the strong showing at the Atlantic Sun Championships and two tournament victories to build off of, Brewer and his team are looking forward to what they can accomplish next season.
“I’m very excited about the future of our program.” Brewer said. “Without a doubt, and again we don’t keep these records in golf, but I would say that we’re in the top 30, maybe top 25 recruiting classes for golf this year in the nation.”
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics