The Valparaiso University men’s golf team opened up the spring season on Saturday, golfing 36 holes at the Invitational at Savannah Harbor hosted at The Club in Savannah, Ga. On the first day of the spring, Valpo was led by freshman Charlie Toman (Chardon, Ohio / Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin), who picked up where he left off after a strong fall campaign.

How It Happened

• Toman is tied for 13^th among all participants after carding a 145 through two rounds. He started the day in style by turning in a 70 in Round 1.
• Jack Juskow (Greenville, S.C. / Hamilton Southeastern) made a nice improvement from Round 1 to Round 2, trimming his first-round score of 77 to a 71 in the second round. He finished Day 1 at 148, which is tied for 35^th.
• The other three Valpo golfers – Brett Seward (Aurora, Ill. / Aurora Christian), Mitchell Wittmann (Kaukauna, Wis. / Kaukauna) and Matthew McCarthy (O’Fallon, Ill. / Althoff Catholic) – all made improvement from Round 1 to Round 2. Seward (153) finished third on the team, followed by a tie between Wittmann and McCarthy (160).

Inside the Game

• Juskow and Toman were both one stroke away from their season bests.
• Valpo’s best performance was on Par 3 holes, where the team held a 3.10 average. Valpo racked up 110 pars and turned in 20 birdies on the first day of competition.
• Juskow had 25 pars to lead the team, while Toman accounted for a team-best six birdies.

Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring

“We had some adjustments to make during the first round after not playing or practicing on grass for the past four winter months. There's typically some rust to knock off and the guys are always excited to get the spring season started. Besides some nerves to start the round and not being sharp with our club distances, it was good to get the first day of competition under the belt.”

“We struggled with the front nine in the first round, shooting 27 over par. Three double and three triple bogeys really affected the scoring. The guys bounced back quickly on the back nine and played that +2. We had a really good finish to the first round and that gave us some momentum for the second round. While we still had too many big holes on the front nine of the second round, we bounced back on the back nine again to finish the second round better.”

“Our Par-5 scoring has to improve, creating more scoring opportunities. Overall, the ball-striking was pretty good for the first 36 holes of the year, but the consistency simply wasn't there today.”

“Charlie had an excellent finish to his first round, making birdie on four of the last eight holes.  He had another good finish to the second round, playing -2 on the last seven holes. Jack had a very efficient second round with 15 pars, two birdies and a bogey. It was terrific to see the sub-par rounds from those two guys today.”

Up Next

The Invitational at Savannah Harbor will continue on Sunday with 18 more holes at The Club in Savannah, Ga. A link to live scoring is available on ValpoAthletics.com courtesy of GolfStat.