Finally getting to compete again, Penn State finishes fifth in Big Ten Match Play

    Penn State’s senior leaders from a year ago, Ryan Davis of Berkeley Heights, N.J. and Alec Bard of New Hartford, N.Y., saw their final spring with the Nittany Lions come to a sudden end in March when the coronavirus pandemic shut down college golf.

   Then the NCAA decided to offer players like Davis and Bard an extra year of eligibility to make up for those final weeks of their senior season that were ripped away by a virus that changed, well, everything. Davis and Bard, the last connections to the 2017 Penn State team that made a stirring run to the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill., decided they wanted that one more shot to wear the Blue and White.

   The Big Ten kept golfers off the course in the fall of the wraparound 2020-2021 season, so with this weekend’s Big Ten Match Play at the Hammock Beach Resort’s Ocean Course in Palm Coast, Fla., just north of Daytona Beach, teed off, it was the first college golf action for these guys in nearly a year.

   There was a ton of competitive golf played last summer as it quickly became apparent that golf was one thing you could do safely during the pandemic. Many college conferences, mostly concerned with whether the cash cow, football, could be played safely, issued blanket cancellations of all college sports in the fall.

   While the Big Ten initially said football would not be played, it eventually backtracked. Hey, football’s football. You’re not preserving hundreds of millions of dollars in TV money by deciding to play golf.

   I get it, these college communities were faced with challenges nobody had seen in a century. College golf could have been played last fall. Tournaments that involved a lot of travel maybe didn’t need to be played, but some regional events could have been – and in the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 were – played.

   I’m sure Penn State’s players played a lot of golf in the fall, but it’s tough to keep any kind of an edge during endless practice loops around the Blue Course.

   Penn State, with the veterans Davis and Bard leading the way, finished fifth in this weekend’s Big Ten Match Play, edging Northwestern, 3-2, in the Fifth-Place match Saturday afternoon, a rematch of last year’s Big Ten Match Play final.

   The placing didn’t really matter as much as the fact that 12 of the 14 Big Ten schools – perennial Big Ten power Illinois usually leaves the Match Play to the rest of the conference – got to compete in a college golf tournament.

   Bard capped a 3-0 weekend with a 3 and 2 victory over Northwestern’s James Imai, a sophomore from Brookline, Mass. Davis added a 2-up win over the Wildcats’ David Nyfjall and senior Lou Olsakovsky, an Upper St. Clair product, earned the final point for the Nittany Lions with a 2 and 1 decision over Varun Chopra, a graduate student from Champaign, Ill.

   Chopra was a member of the Illinois team that won its fifth straight Big Ten team title and 10^th crown in the last 11 seasons in April of 2019 at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s A.W. Tillinghast classic Wissahickon Course, which included a Saturday second round played in what can only be described as a windstorm. Apparently, Chopra decided to take his sticks from Champaign to Chicago for his fifth year of eligibility.

   Penn State sophomore Jimmy Meyers, who helped Pittsburgh Central Catholic capture the 2018 PIAA Class AAA team crown, dropped a 3 and 1 decision to Eric McIntosh, a senior from Scotland, and James McHugh, a senior from Rye, N.Y., fell to Northwestern’s John Driscoll III, a sophomore from Lake Mary, Fla., 2 and 1, to account for the Wildcats’ two points.

   The Big Ten coaches gave byes to the top four seeds, based on Golfstat rankings, for Friday’s opening round. Northwestern was the top seed, Minnesota was second, Purdue was third and Penn State was fourth. Even though those four played some unofficial matches among each other, it was almost predictable that all four lost their second-round matches against teams that played in matches that counted Friday morning.

   Well, Northwestern actually tied Michigan State, 2.5-2.5, but the Spartans had the tiebreaker edge and advanced to Saturday morning’s semifinals.

   Penn State dropped a 3-2 decision to eventual finalist Iowa in the Nittany Lions’ first match, a second-round encounter Friday afternoon.

   Bard claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Gonzalo Leal Montero, a junior from Spain, and McHugh captured a 5 and 3 victory over Charles John, a redshirt senior from Sperry, Iowa, to account for the Nittany Lions’ two points.

   Davis fell, 5 and 4, to Alex Schaake, a redshirt senior from Omaha, Neb., Olsakovsky dropped a hard-fought 1-up decision to Mac McClear, a sophomore from Hinsdale, Ill., and Meyers was edged, 2 and 1, by Benton Weinberg, a redshirt senior from Potomac, Md.

   Iowa had opened with a 3-2 victory over Nebraska, Michigan State earned a 3.5-1.5 win over Maryland, Indiana, the eventual winner, rolled to a 4.5-.5 decision over Ohio State, and Wisconsin captured a 4-1 triumph over Rutgers.

   In addition to the wins by Iowa and Michigan State in Friday afternoon’s second round, Indiana knocked off Minnesota, 4.5-.5, and Wisconsin got by Purdue, 3-2.

   In Saturday morning’s semifinals, Indiana claimed its spot in the final with a 3.5-1.5 win over Wisconsin and Iowa edged Michigan State, 3-2.

   In Saturday morning’s consolation bracket, Penn State battled Minnesota to a 2.5-2.5 tie with the tiebreaker advantage going to the Nittany Lions.

   Bard maintained his perfect record in Palm Coast with a 4 and 2 victory over the Golden Gophers’ Connor Glynn, a sophomore from Waconia, Minn. Meyers picked up a match win by holding off Ben Warian, a freshman from Stillwater, Minn., 2-up. Davis earned a draw with Thomas Longbella, a fifth-year player from Chippewa Falls, Wis.

   Olsakovsky dropped a hard-fought 1-up decision to Lincoln Johnson, a junior from Chaska, Minn. Oksakovsky put his match-play chops on display when he reached the final of the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship at Llanerch Country Club two summers ago.

   Penn State coach Greg Nye gave James Allen, a freshman from Scarsdale, N.Y., a shot in the consolation-round match with Minnesota and Allen fell, 2 and 1, to Will Grevlos, a junior from Sioux Falls, S.D.

   Northwestern earned its spot in the Fifth-Place match with Penn State with a 4-1 victory over Purdue. In the other consolation-bracket matches Saturday morning, Ohio State edged Maryland, 3-2, and Rutgers cruised to a 4.5-.5 victory over Nebraska.

   Indiana captured the Big Ten Match Play title, its first since the first year the event was played in 2009, with a 3-2 victory over Iowa in Saturday afternoon’s title match.

   Mitch Davis, a sophomore from Valparaiso, Ind., pulled out a 1-up victory over Schaake and Henry Reynolds, a junior from Greensville, S.C., edged McClear, 2-up, as the Hoosiers earned a pair of points in matches that went to the final hole. Indiana’s other win came from Ethan Shepherd, a senior from Greenwood, Ind. who earned a 3 and 2 victory over Jake Rowe, a senior from Northern Ireland.

   Iowa’s two points came from Leal Montero, who edged Clay Merchant, a freshman from Noblesville, Ind., 1-up, and Weinberg, who claimed a 5 and 3 win over Drew Salyers, a freshman from Howard, Ohio.

   Reynolds’ win capped a 4-0 weekend for him. Shepherd had three wins and a draw, Salyers was 3-1, Mitch Davis had two wins and two draws and Merchant went 2-2.

   Michigan State captured a 4-1 victory over Wisconsin in the Third-Place match. In addition to Penn State’s 3-2 win over Northwestern, the other consolation matches saw Purdue battle Minnesota to a 2.2-2.5 tie, Maryland claimed a 3.5-1.5 win over Nebraska and Rutgers beat Ohio State, 3.5-1.5.

   Maryland sophomore Austin Barbin, whose victory in the 2019 Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Boys’ Championship at Coatesville Country Club highlighted a monster final summer of junior golf for the Elkton, Md. resident, capped a 3-1 weekend with a 2 and 1 victory over Tom Westenberger, a senior from Germany, in the Terrapins’ consolation victory over Nebraska Saturday afternoon.

   Barbin picked up a point for Maryland with a 2-up victory over another German, sophomore Patrick Schmucking, in the Terrapins’ 3-2 loss to Ohio State Saturday morning. Barbin earned a point with a 1-up win over Oliver Whatley, a senior from Rockville, Md., in the Terrapins’ 3.5-1.5 triumph in a consolation match with Rutgers Friday afternoon.

   Barbin’s only loss came in the opening round as Michigan State’s Bradley Smithson, a sophomore from Grand Rapids, Mich., handed him a 3 and 1 setback in the Terrapins’ 3.5-1.5 loss at the hands of the Spartans.