It was 75 and sunny when junior golfer Jack Schultz stepped up to the first tee at Concession Golf Club, site of the Big Ten Match Play event on Friday morning. The spring season had finally come.
The weather was a pleasant escape from the cold of the Ann Arbor February that Schultz had been enduring. Here, it was paradise — gorgeous Florida sun and not much wind. Perfect golf conditions.
Schultz got off to a slow start, as his opponent, Minnesota’s Robert Bell, built a three-up lead through three holes. But Schultz played consistently to close out the opening nine, and when Bell stumbled, playing holes eight and nine a combined three-over par, Schultz suddenly found himself one-up.
A barn-burner ensued on the back nine. As quickly as he had taken it, Schultz relinquished the lead by bogeying holes 10 and 11. Bell suddenly was one-up again. Then Schultz birdied the short par-4 12th, evening the match. For the next stretch, Bell and Schultz played identical golf, matching each other for the next five holes.
The match came down to the final hole, the 480-yard par-4 18th. On the green, Schultz stared down a four-footer for par, and the win.
It didn’t drop.
They halved the point.
That was the kind of day the Wolverines had — one of struggle and heartbreak. A torrent of low scoring from the Minnesota squad ripped through the Michigan golf team and after the dust had cleared, the Golden Gophers defeated the Wolverines, 4.5-1.5.
Senior Matt Thompson played what first-year Michigan coach Chris Whitten described as “really solid golf.” Unfortunately for Thompson, he ran into the hot putter of Minnesota’s Erik Van Rooyen, and fell two-and-one. Freshman Noori Hyun struggled immensely in his first match, losing seven-and-five. Junior Matt Alessi lost three-and-two, and sophomore Matt Felsenfeld lost two-and-one. The lone bright spot during Michigan’s morning was junior Miguel Echavarria, who won his match one-up. And even his victory wasn’t easy — it ended with Echavarria matching pars with his opponent on the 18th.
Schultz remained positive, however.
“It was kind of unfortunate for me (to miss that putt),” Schultz said. “It wasn’t what I wanted obviously, but it was a learning experience.”
Schultz and his teammates were down — they knew they were no longer in contention for the Big Ten match play victory — but they stayed resilient. They still had a consolation match against Wisconsin on Saturday to look forward to.
Day two saw the wind pick up, gusting at times from 20 to 25 miles per hour. It also was colder. The Florida air had dropped to a frigid 64 degrees.
Schultz, whose memory of the missed four-footer from the previous day still sat raw in his mind, let out his frustrations with a furious six-and-five victory over Wisconsin’s Thomas O’Bryan.
“I played really well (on Saturday),” Schultz said. “I felt like I could’ve beaten anybody. It was a really positive round for me, (especially) coming into the next three weeks. It’s good to have that win.”
Thompson, the lone senior on the squad, continued his solid play on Saturday, with a one-up victory over Anthony Aicher of Wisconsin. Echavarria won again, defeating Chris Meyer of Wisconsin, two-and-one. Alessi won his match one-up. Even Hyun, the freshman, bounced back from his disappointing day-one performance with a steady three-and-two victory.
“I watched (Hyun) throughout his whole round on Saturday,” Whitten said. “He looked great. He’s got one of the prettiest swings on the team.”
Whitten was happy that his team battled the harsh weather on Saturday.
“It was good for them to control the ball in the wind,” Whitten said. “They practiced a lot of knock-down shots and they had to really think about what club to hit, with the wind blowing in their face. So that was good.”
As far as his team’s resiliency, Whitten was proud with what he saw.
“It’s definitely not as much fun to lose,” added Whitten. “They wanted to go home with something to build on and they were definitely ready to play Saturday morning. I was proud of them. They took it upon themselves.”
The Wolverines travel to the Puerto Rico Classic next week in what will be one of the toughest fields they face this season. Three teams in Golfweek’s Collegiate Rankings will be in attendance, including No. 1 Texas, No. 7 Georgia Tech and No. 8 Alabama. Along with Michigan, Purdue and Ohio State will also be representing the Big Ten.