The Valparaiso University men’s golf team improved its score from Monday’s middle round by 10 strokes on Tuesday, closing out the first tournament of the spring on a high note despite again facing windy conditions. The Beacons finished in the top half of a competitive, 21-team field at the Advance Golf Partners Collegiate, which was hosted this week at the par-72, 7169-yard Hammock Beach Ocean Course in Palm City, Fla.

How It Happened

• Junior Caleb VanArragon (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) bounced back from a challenging Monday round by carding a team-low 71 (-1) on Tuesday. He moved back into the top 10 in a 121-player field at 216 (E).
• The second-best Beacon round of the day came courtesy of Yianni Kostouros (Crown Point, Ind. / Crown Point [Ball State]), who had his second round of par or better in the tournament with a 72 (E) over the final 18 holes. That helped him finish at t-27 with a 222 (+6).
• Freshman Anthony Delisanti (Sanborn, N.Y. / Niagara Wheatfield) finished second on the team over the three rounds, tied for 23^rd overall at 221 (+5). He closed the event with a 76 (+4) on Tuesday.

Inside the Round

• Valpo finished the event tied for fourth in par-5 scoring average at 4.98.
• The team produced 40 birdies in the tournament.
• Kostouros eagled the par-5 17^th hole on Tuesday. That marked the second Valpo eagle of the week after VanArragon achieved that feat on Monday.
• VanArragon averaged a 2.83 on par-3 holes, tied for the third-best mark in the tournament on those holes.
• VanArragon led the team with 10 birdies, while Kostouros turned in nine.

Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring

“We played better today in the windy conditions, but we still left a lot of shots out on the course. The guys played the front nine well, but we had too many doubles and triples on the back nine. Part of that was poor shot execution and some of it was poor decision making. We will improve on that for our next tournament.”

“It was great to get the spring season underway in Florida and the team played hard for all 54 holes. The competition always tells us what we need to work on and we will have another two weeks of solid practice before Arizona.”

Up Next

Valpo will host the Dove Mountain Intercollegiate on Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Golf Course at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz.