Kirkwood Finishes as National-Runner Up
Joplin, MO- The defending national champion, Kirkwood Eagles, headed south to Joplin this past week looking to repeat their title after winning the North Central District Championship. Kirkwood would be competing with golfers Grant Greazel, Nate Offerman, Frank Haege, Nathan Bratanata, Quinn Tinkler, and Leo Burger, each golfer looking to take it low. They would be playing at Twin Hills Golf and Country Club, a challenging par 72 course that can present difficulties off the tee. The field of teams included the number one and the number two ranked teams in the country, Mississippi Gulf Coast and South Mountain, along with familiar opponents like DMACC and Southeast.
The first day of competition would be highlighted by extremely windy conditions on what is an already difficult course. Kirkwood's title defense would start early as they were one of the first teams in the field to tee off. Grant Greazel would set the tone early and show the field that it was his tournament to lose. After shooting a +1 front nine, with his only bogey coming on hole 9, he then proceeded to shoot 2 under on the back, birdying holes 10 and 1 and finishing with a 71 (-1). This 71 was good enough to put Greazel in a tie for first place in the tournament. Nathan Bratanata would also come out swinging, continuing his strong showing from last years national tournament. Bratanata would shoot a 73 (+1) with 4 birdies and 5 bogeys. Frank Haege, Nate Offerman, and Quinn Tinkler would shoot 78, 79, and 79 respectively, putting Kirkwood in a tie for first place overall after the first day with a 301 (+13).
The theme for Grant Greazel's second round would have been low numbers. He would put up a total of 7 birdies in the round and finished with a low round of 69 (-3), putting him in the outright lead at (-4). The rest of the team would also put up solid numbers, with only 4 strokes separating the low and high score amongst them. At the end of day 2, Kirkwood would now be in a tie for second overall in the tournament with a 591 (+15). Sub golfer, Leo Burger, would come in for Quinn Tinkler in the third round and shoot a 77 (+5). Nate Offerman would be the low score on the team for the day putting up a 71 (-1) after 3 birdies (holes 5, 14, and 16) and only 2 bogeys. This was good enough to jump him up into tied for 16th overall. Greazel and Bratanata would both shoot a 74 (+2) in the third round, which wouuld keep Greazel in first and put Bratanata in a tie for 9th. The scores put Kirkwood in 3rd place overall at 886 (+22).
Kirkwood would make a serious push for the top of the leaderboard in the final round of the NJCAA DII Men's Golf Tournament. Bratanata was taking no prisoners in his round, shooting a team-best 69 which would catapault him from 9th place all the way to tied for 2nd overall. Leo Burger would shoot a 72 (E) in his final round, Offerman and Haege would shoot 76 and 75 respectively in their last rounds. This put Offerman at 298 (+10) for the tournament and in 16th place and had Haege finishing at 304 (+16) and in 34th overall. Greazel would show his consistency that he has displayed all year in his final round. He would shoot a 71 (-1) putting him at 285 (-3) and in first place overall. Grant Greazel is the 2nd golfer in Kirkwood Golf history to become the individual champion. All of these scores would be good enough to jump Kirkwood into second place overall and become the NJCAA DII Men's Golf Tournament Runner-Up.
