The Valparaiso University men’s golf team enters Tuesday with an opportunity to close out a team championship at the Butler Spring Invitational, hosted at the par-70, 6551-yard Highland Golf and Country Club in Indianapolis.

The team has earned four runner-up finishes this season including an impressive showing at last week’s Twin Oaks Intercollegiate. This time, the Beacons are hoping to wrap up their first tournament title of the 2021-22 campaign. The tournament was originally slated for 54 holes but was shortened to 36 due to cold temperatures and inclement weather.

How It Happened

• Valpo leads instate rival Butler by seven strokes for the top spot in the 12-team tournament. Head coach Dave Gring’s team carded a Round-1 score of 279 (-1), while the hosts are second at 286. The Beacons own a significant edge on both Missouri Valley Conference schools that are participating with Bradley fifth at 291 and Evansville eighth at 293.
• Freshman Anthony Delisanti (Sanborn, N.Y. / Niagara Wheatfield) sits tied atop the player leaderboard in a 98-golfer field after carding a 68 (-2) in Monday’s round. He is even with Luke Armbrust of Illinois for medalist honors. The No. 24 Illini are not participating as a team, but have individuals in the field.
• Three Valpo golfers shot under par in Monday’s round as Caleb VanArrangon (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) and Garrett Willis (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Homestead) both finished at 69 (-1). The teammates are part of a five-way tie for third, just one stroke back of Delisanti and Armbrust.
• Yianni Kostouros (Crown Point, Ind. / Crown Point [Ball State]) stroked a 73, while Sam Booth (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) turned in a 74.

Inside the Round

• Valpo’s team score of 279 is its second-best of the season, behind only a 278 in the first round of the Twin Oaks Intercollegiate last week. In fact, this marks the second straight week that Valpo has turned in one of the best single-round team scores in modern program history (since the program’s 2009 relaunch). Last week’s 278 ranks second in the program record book, and this week’s 279 ranks third. The program record of 273 was established in the first round of the Golfweek Program Challenge on Sept. 7, 2014.
• Delisanti’s 68 represented the best 18-hole score of his young collegiate career, outdoing his previous best of 69 (GCU Invitational). Furthermore, Willis’ 69 tied his career low.
• Valpo leads the tournament field in both par-4 scoring (4.05) and par-5 scoring (4.70).
• The Beacons have the second-most birdies of any participating squad with 13. The top birdie production has come from Willis with five, followed closely by VanArragon with four.
• Delisanti is one of only two players in the tournament who achieved an eagle on Monday. He eagled the par-5 12^th hole.

Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring

“Today’s round had the coldest temps that we have played in well over a year or two. It’s challenging to get the golf ball to effectively compress on the clubface of the club when temps are not much over freezing. The guys were prepared with their gear and they made some terrific adjustments with their club distances to manage through the cold temperatures. The conditions for the practice round yesterday were even worse than today, and I knew that we would be ready to play today. The guys maintained a really good attitude with the two delayed starts to the round and playing in the mid-30 degree temps.”

“We had a slow start to the round, and I could tell the guys were still adjusting to playing in the cold temps. The team played much steadier during the middle of the round, with a lot of pars and some quality birdies. I was very pleased with the finish to our round with the guys making some really good birdies and a lot of solid pars. Despite the cold temps, the ball-striking was very good. We talked about playing the Par 3s at even par and taking advantage of some of the Par-4 scoring opportunities.”

“Anthony started his round with 11 consecutive pars. He never got frustrated with missing the birdie opportunities and he had some quality up and downs to save par. The eagle on Hole 12 was tremendous, knocking-in a wedge from 115 yards. Our team celebrates those types of shots, and that’s not the first eagle from the fairway by the team this year. Anthony hit 14 out of 18 greens in regulation, eight out of 14 fairways and he had 30 putts - just a very solid round on all fronts. Add to that Garrett and Caleb finishing at one under, and it was a good day for the Beacons. We are looking forward to getting back at it tomorrow.”

Up Next

The Beacons will attempt to close out the team title with the second and final round on Tuesday. The 18 holes will begin at 10 a.m. CT / 11 a.m. ET with a shotgun start. A link to live scoring via GolfStat is available on ValpoAthletics.com.