CHOCTAW – The Northwest Mississippi Community College men's golf team finished a stretch of five rounds of golf in seven days at the Chris Clark Invitational at Dancing Rabbit Golf Course, finishing in seventh place out of the twelve-team field.
The Rangers were 56 over as a team, improving their score by four strokes from their Monday round and moving up one spot in the standings by leapfrogging Northeast Mississippi Community College in the process.
Individually, only one Ranger finished in the top ten with Atharv Sharma going 79-75 over his two days for a 10-over for the tournament.
Day one saw the freshman from Hildesheim, Germany start on the back-nine, and he would tear through it with only a pair of bogeys, making the turn at two-over. He ran into trouble on the third and fourth holes with a pair of double-bogey's but rebounded well to finish going one-over on the final five holes.
His second round also was a back-nine where he would birdie the eleventh, but doubles on twelve and fifteen moved him to three-over at the turn. The front nine was a new start for Sharma, and he would play to even par the rest of the way, going one under on the final five holes.
The finish was his second best of the season, just better than his 12th place finish at the Bobcat Invitational in November. His top finish came in the opener for the Rangers at their home tournament where he finished in third.
A group of Rangers were piled together behind Sharma, with Braden Beverage closing tied for 24th with a 14-over two-day stretch, and both Cole Elander and Caesar Ingendorf finishing in a tie for 40th at 17-over.
Beverage got out of the gate hot, playing the first seven holes to even par before a bogey on the 17th pushed him to one-over at the turn on day one. Aside from a three-over stretch in the middle of his second nine, his consistency earned him a spot near the leaders after the opening day at just four-over.
It seemed all greens at the start of his second day, but trouble at the turn saw him go eight-over on the final eleven holes as he went 10-over on the day, dropping 13 places in the process.
Similar stories were had for every Ranger that played.
Elander had trouble on the first day with only one birdie and nine bogeys or worse, scoring an 11-over, but he rebounded on the second day and improved his score by nearly double, going six-over with matching front and back nine's.
Ingendorf had a more balanced tournament with a ten-over 82 on his first day before going seven-over on his second, but he was also bit by inconsistency, going two-over to start day one before going eight-over on the back nine. On day two, he was six-over to start but rallied to close it going one-over on his final nine to finish at 17-over.
Drew Dabbs closed out the field of Rangers who completed the tournament, going 19-over to finish in a tie for 49th. Despite a pair of birdies on the opening day, he couldn't get past nine bogeys and finish at seven-over. Day two saw a 12-over with three double-bogeys at the start hurting his momentum.
As a team, the Rangers moved up one spot in the national rankings to 34th. Sharma remained in the top 100 after the most recent rankings and Elander has made significant moves up in the spring, opening the year at #245 before moving up to #164 in the rankings in just one month.
The men have a few weeks off including spring break before getting back to work. They will be traveling to Meridian on March 23rdand 24th for the Meridian Invitational at Northwood Country Club.
- Article credit Caleb Burggraff, NWCC Sports Information.
