The Marshall University men’s golf team finished 14th out of 15 teams at The Health Plan Mountaineer Invitational at Pete Dye Golf Course in Bridgeport, W.Va. this week following weather-related challenges.

After the first round of play on the first day of the tournament, the match was suspended due to the unplayable conditions.

“It is probably the toughest golf course we see all year,” Head Coach Matt Grobe said. “The couple of holes we did play that morning were into about a 20 mile-per-hour wind in addition to rain spitting on you, and that was definitely a challenge. We just are not putting up the numbers right now that I think we will be pretty soon.”

Following the delay, the match continued and the Herd saw major improvements.

From the first round to the second round the team saw a 12-stroke advance and went on to finish 13-strokes better than the second in the third round.

Out of the 81 players who competed in the tournament, Marshall junior golfer, Brad Plaziak, led the team and tied for 40th shooting a 79, 75, and a 76 for a total score of 240. The largest improvement on the team came from sophomore Kyle Mitchell who shot an 88 the first round, an 83 the second and finished with a team best stroke of 73 on the last round.

“I saw a lot of great shots,” Grobe said. “At the end of the day, I was not happy with the scoring because I thought we played better than our score dictated.”

Redshirt senior Ben Roeder tied for 65th by shooting an 84, 76, and 77 for a final score of 237.

“The first three to five holes that you play are the most important to set the tone,” Roeder said. “If you are not fully focused, a course like that, you are going to shoot bogeys and that is just the reality of a tough course.”

West Virginia University won the tournament, shooting an 864 as a team and winning by three strokes over Florida Atlantic University.

Marshall will be back on the course at NCR Country Club at the Dayton Flyer Intercollegiate in Ohio on Oct. 14-15.

Brigham Warf can be contacted at [email protected].