This weekend the Gophers’ men’s golf team made a gigantic splash with eight players earning top-25 finishes in three amateur tournaments.
In the GCAA South Bend Amateur, Thomas Longbella finished tied for 10th. In the Hoosier Amateur, Will Grevlos finished T-25, Harry Plowman-Ollington T-22, Harrison Arnold T-19, Evan Long T-17, Lincoln Johnson T-8 and sophomore Connor Glynn secured fifth place.
On the conditions of the Hoosier Amateur, played near the campus of Indiana University, Glynn said, “It was cold, the last day was pretty windy and the setup was super hard … On Sunday, the wind was oddly blowing in a different direction than the first three days, which made tee shots visually tougher because some fairways were harder to hit.”
Glynn entered the final day in second place and due to the tough conditions placed fifth. Overall, Glynn was very positive about his putting performance. Meanwhile for Johnson, even with the unfavorable weather, he was still able to shoot the third-lowest score of the day. According to Glynn, Johnson shot +3.
Yet, the star of the weekend was senior Angus Flanagan. Flanagan finished first in the Minnesota Golf Champions tournament, shooting -12.
The tournament field takes all the past Minnesota State PGA Open champions and high place finishers in other major Minnesota golf tournaments and pits the talented golfers head to head.
“I was pretty scrappy the first two rounds, but [Sunday] was the best I’ve hit it in awhile,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan scored a 7-under-par 66 on the day and said he thought he even could have scored lower.
“I don’t mean to sound like a brat, but everyone was telling me that I should be excited that I shot seven under, but I knew deep down I could’ve had a much better round. I missed two key eagle putts and could’ve had more birdies with better chips,” Flanagan said. “It’s amazing to win this tournament at a challenging course in Golden Valley Country Club.”
Head coach Justin Smith was pleased with the performance of his team in these amateur events, particularly while they’re playing in a stretch without NCAA events and much competitive play against collegiate golfers. Smith said he can’t wait for the spring.
“I absolutely think this is the team most prepared to go deep into May and compete in the 2021 NCAA finals. As a team, we have an incredibly strong feeling that we can compete with the best of the best,” Smith said.
