Sometimes in sports, there are silver linings and positive things you can take away from a loss. Grand Valley State men’s golf team is doing just that after the Northern Kentucky Spring Classic.

GVSU finished in fourth place at Pendleton Country Club with an opening day score of 296 ( 8) and a second round score of 287 (-1) for a total of 583 ( 7). This was the first tournament for GVSU of the spring season and the first tournament for them in over five months.

“I think we fared pretty well,” said senior Nick Gunthorpe, who paced the Lakers with a score of 144 (E) and finished in a tie for 13th overall. “Most of the school’s we played against have been on track for a while. Down on spring break in North Carolina, we really only had a week of playing golf under our belt. So getting a fourth place finish is a confidence booster for all of us.”

Gunthorpe shot the third-best round of the tournament with a 69 (-3) on the second day of the tournament.

For GVSU, the biggest thing was just getting more time on the golf course under their belt. The difference in first- and second-round scoring is evidence that GVSU is still trying to get back into their rhythm from the fall.

“Taking fourth place was not too bad,” said sophomore Jack Rider, who finished in a tie for 17th with fellow Laker Chase Olsen.

Both finished up with a total score of 146 ( 2).

“We definitely didn’t play our best, but for the first tournament of the winter, it is not a bad result,” Rider said. “We had a rough first day that put us a ways back. Overall, we can’t be too disappointed. It is a good start to the season.”

Senior Travis Shooks finished in a tie for 24th with a score of 148 ( 4) and sophomore Chris Cunningham and freshman Joel Siegel both shot a 150 ( 6) for a tie of 32nd.

GVSU comes away from this tournament more confident now for the rest of the spring season. The Lakers are hoping to build off this tournament, similar to how they gained momentum to the early tournaments in the fall.

“We had a pretty similar start last fall,” Rider said. “We came out of the gates a little bit slow and just continued to improve week in and week out. I think we’re all pretty satisfied with where we are headed. We showed a lot of improvement the second day and we expect good things to come.”

The Lakers will next be in action on March 31 for the second Great Lakes Regional tournament which is held at Cherry Blossom golf course in Georgetown, Ky. GVSU will use the time they have off to continue to improve on their game.

We have this weekend off so we’re going to practice the next two weeks,” Gunthorpe said. “We should be able to work on some problems we recognized over the weekend and fix those and move forward.”

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