The Valparaiso University men’s golf team put together a quality round at the Wright State Invitational in Springboro, Ohio on Monday. Valpo trimmed nine strokes off its first-round score to vault to fourth place in the 12-team event. Jack Juskow (Greenville, S.C. / Hamilton Southeastern) cracked the program record book with his round on Monday.

How It Happened

• Juskow turned in the best round by any of the 77 individuals on Monday. His Round 2 score of 67 (-3) marked a seven-stroke improvement from Round 1 and lifted him into a tie for fourth overall with a 36-hole score of 141.
• Charlie Toman (Chardon, Ohio / Notre Dame Cathedral Latin) carded a 71 (+1) on Monday to finish the 36 holes at 147, tied for 22^nd.
• Mitchell Wittmann (Kaukauna, Wis. / Kaukauna) also made an improvement from Round 1 to Round 2, stroking a 73 on Monday. He finished the two days at 159, tied for 27^th. Garrett Willis (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Homestead) was part of the 27^th-place tie with Wittmann.
• Valpo entered the day sitting in eighth in the team standings and elevated all the way to fourth. The team’s 36-hole score using a six-count-five format was 739, behind only Wittenberg (721), IUPUI (730) and Wright State (732). Valpo’s 18-hole score (6-count-5) was 365 on Monday.

Inside the Round

• Juskow established a new career best and cracked Valpo’s all-time Top 10 with his showing. His score is tied for sixth in program history. It was also Juskow’s first career Top 10 finish. He had the best score by a Valpo golfer since Drew Alexander carded a 65 at the SIU Derek Dolenc Invitational on Sept. 25, 2017.
• Valpo led the field in Par 5 scoring at 4.75 (-6) and ranked fourth in pars with 127.
• Juskow thrived on Par 4 holes, averaging a 4.00 (E), which tied third among all participants.
• Wittmann finished tied for second in Par 5 scoring at 4.25 (-3). He also led the team in pars with 24.
• Valpo was the only team with two eagles in the tournament. Toman turned in an eagle on Sunday, while Wittmann added an eagle on Monday, needing just three strokes on a Par 5 fourth hole.

Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring

“After the first round, we talked about beating the three teams in front of us, since we were playing with all three of them today. The guys were able to get that job done and improve our team scoring, allowing us to finish in fourth place. We were able to lead the field in Par-5 scoring today, which is something that we have discussed really needing to improve this spring.  As individuals, Mitch led the field in Par-5 scoring today and Jack and Charlie led the field in Par-4 scoring.”

“We needed to improve our birdie production since our performance was very poor in that category yesterday. The guys doubled the amount of birdies today and we were able to finally get more of the putts to drop. The team was making putts over 20 and even 30 feet for birdie, so that always adds a lot to momentum during the round. There was still a lot of execution of shots that should have been a lot better, so we need to improve our consistency and that will certainly improve our scores even more.”

“Jack has had a terrific spring for us and his short game continues to improve every tournament.  Despite only hitting nine greens in regulation and 64 percent of his fairways, Jack was seven for nine in up and downs and he had 24 putts. He had five birdies, two bogeys and his short game was very solid. He has put a lot of practice time into his chipping and putting and he has a lot of confidence with that part of his game.”

Up Next

This marks the end of Valpo’s final tournament prior to the MVC Championship, which will be hosted by Missouri State in Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. starting on Monday, April 22. The conference teams will play 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday. Live scoring will be available via GolfStat.