#3 Kirkwood Takes Runner-Up at Blue Boy Invitational
Springfield, IL- The #3 ranked Kirkwood Eagles traveled to Springfield last week to compete in the Blue Boy Invitational at the Rail Golf Course. They were fresh off a win at the Upper Iowa Invite from the previous weekend and were feeling good about the way they were playing. They would be competing against solid teams from south of the border like Illinois Wesleyan, Illinois Central, Heartland, Danville, and Illinois College but they were ready for the challenge.
Kirkwood brought two teams to the tournament. Kirkwood-A was comprised of Grant Greazel, Nate Offerman, Frank Haege, Nathan Bratanata, and Quinn Tinkler. Kirkwood B had golfers Tate Brunk, Leo Burger, Payton Burns, and Gannon Hall. The Eagles were battling with the conditions as much as they were battling with the course itself. It was a cold and windy weekend with gusts reaching between 30-40 MPH. Both squads would accept and rise to the challenge.
The first day showed Kirkwood-A solidifying a 4th place showing at 299 (+7). Nathan Bratanata led the way for the Eagles posting a 72 (E) round that was good enough to have him tied for 6th place. He eagled hole 4, birdied 9, and bogeyed 6, 7, 8 for a 36 on the first 9. He then birdied 15 and bogeyed 16 to post the same on the back 9. Other Kirkwood Eagles weren't far behind Bratanata. Nate Offerman posted a 73 (+1), and Tate Brunk and Gannon Hall both posted 74 (+2). Everyone on Kirkwood-A was within 4 strokes of each other, which would lead to an exciting day 2.
Day 2 would see the Kirkwood Eagles make a push for the top of the leaderboard. Both Frank Haege and Leo Burger would shoot under par for the round, posting 71 (-1). Burger's round would be extremely consistent, birdying holes 1 and 4 and only posting 1 bogey on 16; Haege's round would see 4 birdies and 3 bogeys. Kirkwood-A would post an extremely low round of day 2 at 291 to finish at 586 (+10) which would push them all the way up to 2nd place overall, only 3 shots behind the leader, Illinois Wesleyan. The Eagles would see 7 golfers finish in the top 11 scores. Frank Haege and Gannon Hall would finish tied for 4th place overall at +2. Hall would post a 72 (E) in the last round to jump from 14th all the way up to 4th place. Bratanata and Burger would both finish tied for 9th at +3, and Greazel, Offerman, and Tinkler would all finish tied for 11th at +4. Kirkwood-B would finish in a very competitive 5th place overall.
Next up for the Eagles is the Waterloo Intercollege at Gates Park Golf Course in Waterloo this weekend.
