Franklin, Ill. – The Great Lakes Regional this weekend at the Legends Golf Club in Franklin produced a lot of good scores even with extremely difficult conditions, and saw a familiar school run away with both the title and the National Championship bid.
The first round on Saturday was marked by incredible winds and a difficult course which produced a scoring average of 94 for the whole field. Although the majority of the players struggled mightily, a few shined above the rest. This group was led by an extraordinary round from Purdue’s Luke Brzezinski, who shot a -2 70 which was markedly steady – Luke shot -1 35s on both 9 holes. The only other scores to break 80 were Bennett Rieke’s (Purdue) 78 and Brian Miller’s (Notre Dame A)76. Purdue led the field by a significant margin after day 1, by 25 over Illinois State A and by 32 over Notre Dame A.
The wind on the second day was similar to the first, but the course set up lent itself a little better to scoring and we saw some better scoring. 6 players broke 80, and although no one could replicate the under par round from Saturday we finished with a quality leaderboard. Unsurprisingly, Brzezinski finished with the medalist honors shooting a second round 78 to finish with a +4 148. Rieke finished in second place, and Miller in third. The rest of the tournament team consisted of Anthony Zachman (Purdue), Alec Sanderson (ISU A), Jason Plepel (Purdue), Nick Karzmer (Northwestern) and Will Murphy (ND A). Purdue won the tournament, and by virtue of the tiebreaker claimed the Nationals qualifying spot over Illinois State.
Although the Great Lakes season was condensed into two consecutive weekends, we saw some terrific golf at both courses and are excited about the talent we have going forward. We would like to congratulate ISU and Purdue on their victories, and especially Purdue for returning to Nationals. Hopefully they represent us well, and hopefully we can sneak another team in through wild card qualifying. Although the season is now over, we can’t wait for fall to come to we can start another exciting semester in the NCCGA.
***Connect with RC Sean Flanagan @NCCGAGreatLakes.
