Senior Justin Ahrens hit a 15-foot birdie putt on 18 to win the Pacific Invite by one stroke
BANKS, Ore. –Nothing compares to a big turnaround. The NCU men’s golf team proved that this weekend in a big way. Northwest Christian had opened the Pacific University Invitational on Saturday with a team score of 318 and they sat ten strokes behind tournament-leading Pacific. The second round was a completely different story, however, as the Beacons shot a school-record 290, finishing in a tie with the hosts.
A scorecard tiebreaker was activated, based on the top-four scores for each team from the 18th hole of the second round. For the Beacons, both senior Justin Ahrens and junior Josh Samples birdied 18 and as a team, NCU was two-under, giving them a one-stroke victory over Pacific.
“Our first round was a downer,” said head coach Tony Joyner. “I am so proud of all of the players and how they bounced back. We really struggled on an unfamiliar course with heavy wind on Saturday and none of us were very satisfied with our team play. On Sunday their hard work and discipline paid off considerably.”
Nothing compares to a big turnaround. Just ask Ahrens, a two-time All-CCC selection, who has had a difficult start to the season. After holding a scoring average just over 74 over his first two seasons, Ahrens had not yet broken 80 in four rounds of play and was struggling to find an answer.
Whatever he had going on, he seemed to finally figure it out, blasting out of the gates on Saturday with a season-low 73. That was followed by a round of 69 on Sunday, that included a birdie-birdie finish on 17 and 18 to give him a one-shot victory over second-place Max Bonk from Pacific. And if that weren’t enough drama, Ahrens final shot was a 15-foot putt to give him the win.
Ahrens said, “It has been a grind and it took a lot of work, but it was nice to turn things around. I just needed to find a new focus mentally and that has helped me get back to where I was at the end of last season.”
Nothing compares to a big turnaround. Just ask Brent McKee, Josh Samples, Michael Lambert and Chase Cleaver. For McKee, a disappointing 80 on Saturday gave way to a one-under 71 on Sunday, giving the junior a fifth-place finish. Samples hit an 82 on Saturday, and followed that up with a personal-record round, hitting a par-72 for the first time to take 8th. Lambert shaved off five strokes between rounds to card a 78 in the second round, good for 13th, and Cleaver improved from round-to-round, shooting an 83-82=165 for 16th place.
“We had the players get on the putting green and on the range after the first round,” said Joyner. “They showed dedication and commitment and practiced hard after the round and it was awesome to see the way that every single golfer improved on Sunday. A combined team-score of just 2-over doesn’t happen very often.”
The Beacons will look to continue their improvements on October 5th as they begin the second Cascade Conference event of the season, the Concordia Invitational.