The Grand Valley State University men’s golf team dropped from a first-round fifth place to a final seventh-place finish in the Northwood University Invitational Sunday.

Despite a seven-stroke improvement from the opening round, the Lakers finished with a total score of 609 at Currie West Golf Course in Midland, Mich.

“We need to improve our course management decision-making and our abilities on the green,” said head coach Don Underwood. “We didn’t putt very well and we were too aggressive off the tee. Unfortunately, what it did was it led us making a lot of big numbers — double bogeys and triple bogeys — and that’s not an easy way to play the game.”

Underwood said there were some positives in the less-than-desirable finish.

“It was nice to see Nick Gunthorpe play well in the second round,” Underwood said. “He played fairly well in the first round and kind of slipped away late in the round, but in round two I was happy to see him shoot 70 and see him move up in the individual standings.”

Though Gunthorpe, a senior, tied for fifth place in the final individual results, he was also disappointed in the overall team performance.

“We got ourselves in a hole early and couldn’t really dig ourselves out of it,” Gunthorpe said. “It was kind of a struggle — we never really had a good round for all four or five of us playing at the same time.”

Sophomore Chris Cunningham, last season’s GLIAC Freshman of the Year, believes the team has what it takes to bounce back strong and is hopeful of what is to come this year.

“From last year’s team we only lost one senior, so we have a lot of experience from a pretty good team last year,” Cunningham said. “We’re hoping to have some success this year starting with hopefully winning the conference tournament and making it to nationals in the spring.”

The Lakers will travel to South Haven, Mich., on Saturday, where GVSU will host the NCAA Midwest Regional Fall Invitational at Hawkshead Golf Course.

“It’s extremely important for us to play well wrapping up a three-tournament stretch,” Underwood said. “We need to be accumulating wins in the head-to-head record … so we’re going to get back to work and we’ll be prepared for this weekend.”

Gunthorpe said he is looking forward to playing on a course his team knows pretty well.

“This counts more towards getting into post-season play,” Gunthorpe said. “Based on how our team has done there in the past, it should be a good tournament… Travis Shooks shot a school record of 66 last year, I’ve played well there in the past and so has Chase Olsen, so I think the course is set up well for how we play the game and I think we should do well.”

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