The Grand Valley State University men’s golf team showed vast improvement from Sunday’s round to close out the tournament in third place at GLIAC Fall Event in South Haven on Monday.

The Lakers shrugged off a tough round Saturday to turn in solid performances Monday.

“Sunday we didn’t play up to our expectations, and if you ask any of the guys, I think they’ll tell you the same thing,” said head coach Don Underwood.

Chris Cunningham came in seventh overall for GVSU with two rounds of 74 ( 2) finishing with a total score of 148 and ( 4) for the tournament.

Sophomore Jack Rider turned in an even par 72 on Monday to place 11th for the Lakers. His second round was GVSU’s lowest score for the event.

“Nobody has played spectacular yet but the guys have been working hard and they played solid,” Underwood said.

GVSU’s jump in the standings from ninth to third came on a day when most teams were having trouble.

“The wind was blowing quite hard,” Underwood said. “It was a much harder day on Monday and that’s when you have to make good decisions.”

Underwood said that the team talks about how to address adverse conditions on the course.

“On days like that you have to just take a little off the ball, because if you try to hit a hard shot it’s going to be trouble,” Underwood said.

Junior Joel Siegel placed 32nd for GVSU with a score of 154.

Siegel battled through a tough opening day to shave six strokes off of his round from Sunday.

“I got off to a really rough start,” Siegel said. “It was two shots that cost me five or six strokes.”

The Lakers hope that their momentum will carry into the weekend in Wisconsin, where they will be playing in the Great Lakes Region Fall Invitational at Brightondale.

This will be the first trip to Brightondale for the Lakers.

“We have a practice round on Saturday so we can walk the course then,” Underwood said. “But there are 36 holes that we’ll be playing and we won’t have a chance to go over the whole course.”

GLIAC Fall Event winner Wayne State University will join GVSU in Wisconsin this weekend, along with rival Ferris State.

“We need to come out strong and focused and be prepared to play the first round,” Siegel said. “We can’t wait to wake up (and) try to climb back into it like we did this weekend.”

GVSU will need a good start and will need to keep that play up to come out on top this weekend.

“This is going to be a real test for our guys,” Underwood said. “There are going to be some good teams and we need to show up.”

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