Linfield’s Men’s Golf Team Win Again

The Wildcats finished 12 strokes ahead of Pacific (298). Non-conference guest Concordia of Portland was third at 301, Willamette fourth at 320 and Lewis & Clark last at 348.

Photo: Linfield College

McMINNVILLE - Led by a four-under-par 68 by Andrew Fitch, Linfield’s men’s golf team won its own tournament Wednesday with a four-player score of 2 under par 286.

It was the second straight victory by the Wildcats in the Northwest Conference South’s fall season Four-Way Tournament.

Matt Guthrie of Concordia was second behind Fitch at 2-under-par 70 while Linfield’s Kyle Henderson and Pacific’s Dan Cashmere tied for third at one-under 71.

Fitch said it was his best round since his junior year of high school. He credited his “really cool start.” “I made birdies on four of the first five holes, and I putted well all day (28 putts total),” Fitch said.

He played the last 13 holes at net par with three birdies and three bogies. “I didn’t make any big mistakes,” he said.

Henderson, Linfield’s captain, noted, “We hit our goal again, with everybody in the 70s.”

While the first six Linfield finishers were in the 70s, Matt Taylor (Jr., Twin Falls, Idaho), medalist of the first tournament last week at 2-under par, was 8-over 80 on Monday.

“For us to shoot under par as a team is very encouraging,” coach Greg Copeland said. “This must be one of Linfield’s best-ever team scores (unfortunately, there are no school golf scoring records), and it was different guys than last week. We are pretty deep. I’m really encouraged by this.”

Linfield’s other sub-80 scorers Monday were Joel Rychard 73, Jeff Nigro 74, Tyler Nelson 77 and Kevin Duerr (Soph., Durham, Calif.) 79.

Last week, the Wildcats’ best four scorers were Taylor 70, Henderson 72, Fitch 74 and Nelson 74.

Linfield plays Round 3 of the Northwest Conference fall tournament Sunday at the Tukwila Golf Club at Woodburn.

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