Coming off a fourth-place finish at the Bridgestone Intercollegiate in Oct., the Michigan men’s golf team needed some time to find its traction this weekend at the Big Ten Match Play Championships in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

The Wolverines tried their luck in their first match of the weekend against Northwestern, but late-round trouble prevented the team from beating the Wildcats

“Some guys just couldn’t keep up,” Michigan coach Andrew Sapp said Friday. “It was tied through about 12 holes, we just couldn’t finish off the match.”

Freshman Joey Garber captured Michigan’s only win of the day, beating his opponent by three strokes with one hole remaining.

Working in the offseason to add more dimension to his game, Garber added shots that allow him to shape the ball, increasing his adaptability.

“I felt like I was getting too one dimensional,” Garber said. “It was keeping me off the top of the leaderboard every week. “

Despite disappointing team results on Friday, it took only one day to connect the missing links. Senior Lion Kim went up four on the front nine on Saturday, and needed just 13 holes to beat Minnesota’s ace Donald Constable in swift fashion.

“I was consistent off the tee and made key putts,” Kim said. “We had to get some rust off us, that’s why we had a good result today.”

If 16 water hazards were not enough on this lengthy 7,000-yard course, rain during the weekend made a victory even more difficult to come by.

Despite the weather, Michigan managed to piece together another win on Saturday, in its final match of the tournament against Iowa.

Coming through yet again to complete his 3-0 start to the spring was freshman sensation Joey Garber, who Sapp said was the, “star of the weekend.”

Though the Wolverines struggled in the winners bracket, the team is hopeful that its rally on Saturday is telling of things to come for next weeks match in Puerto Rico.

Eliminating mistakes is more crucial than ever in practice this week, with the remainder of the season consisting of stroke-play events. Winning a hole in a match play is the same if a player wins by one or eight strokes, but a blow-up hole in stroke play can be the demise of an entire round.

Imperative in this process will be the senior leadership of Kim.

“He practices harder than anyone I’ve ever met,” Garber said, “Lion is a guy who really set the bar.”

The Wolverines will find out whether they are able to continue where they left off at the Bridgestone facing tough competition in the weeks to come, or if the Michigan winter leaves them needing to crank up the intensity in Puerto Rico.