The North Idaho College men’s golf team overcame a four-stroke deficit to win the NIC Invitational at Avondale Golf Club in Hayden Lake Oct. 14.
NIC shot 310 the first day and 291 the second for a two-day total of 601. It trailed Whitworth University and Spokane Community College, who both shot 306, and Rocky Mountain College (307). Lewis-Clark State College also shot a 310 the first day.
NIC freshman Angus Montgomery won the invitational shooting a 74 and 72 for a 146.
“He’s a really steady player,” head coach Derrick Thompson said. “He’s just really sharp, all of his game, every aspect of it is really, pretty polished for a freshman, which is rare.”
In the first round, Montgomery said he started hitting the ball on the fairways and greens on the back nine, but the front nine is where he struggled. Montgomery wasn’t too happy with his first-round score even though he was only one shot back of the lead at the time.
Teammate Michael Porter finished tied for second with a 147. Porter also shot a 74 the first day, but wasn’t happy with that score either because he started fast, but cooled off toward the end.
“I hit the wedges pretty good,” Porter said. “Within 80 yards, I did well.”
NIC practices at Avondale and both Montgomery and Porter said playing on their home course helps them.
NIC sophomore Chris Cremer shot the best round of the tournament in the second round with a 70. NIC pulled away from the other teams in the second round. Its 291 was 14 shots better than Whitworth, who had the next best second-round score.
Ten teams, besides NIC, competed in the invitational, including four-year schools.
The NIC women’s team took fifth place out of the seven teams competing. The Lady Cardinals shot 741. Lewis-Clark State College won the tournament with a 629.
Sophomore Madi Hauck shot rounds of 87 (174) to lead NIC and finished 13th overall. Freshman Jenna Kaik shot two rounds of 90 (180) and Jennie Williams shot a 182 for the Lady Cardinals.
Thompson said he is relying on Hauck and Williams to continue to be successful. He said both are ranked in the top 100 in the country for junior colleges. “I still think there’s a lot of room for them to grow as well and to improve, but they’re playing pretty well right now, so if we can keep this up and then make a couple improvements here and there, they’re going to be doing pretty well,” Thompson said.
Three out of the five golfers on the women’s side are freshmen.
“We’ve got some young freshmen that have got some growing to do, but it’s to be expected,” Thompson said. “Golf is a hard transition especially from playing high school golf as a girl up to playing women’s golf. The differences are so severe. They’ll play much longer golf courses, more difficult golf courses, but they’ll grow.”
The NIC Invitational was the last invitational of the fall for the men and women’s teams.