Golf third at championships

Mouse Braun

The Lawrence golf team failed to defend its 2005 title, taking third this weekend at the MWC Championships, hosted this year by Grinnell College. Knox took first with a cumulative total of 931, while Monmouth and LU took second and third with scores of 944 and 947.
Senior Joe Loehnis took an individual second at the three-round tournament, held at Aldeen Golf Club in Rockford, Ill. He had a two-foot birdie putt to win on the 18th, but failed to execute and proceeded to lose on the first hole of the playoff to Mack Foster of Knox.
“I personally didn’t putt well all week,” Loehnis said. “The last hole was evidence of that.”
Seniors Matt Orth and Andy Link finished seventh and 10th to earn all-MWC.
Third place is a respectable team finish, but the Vikes know they should have fared better. “We didn’t play to our ability,” Loehnis said after the tournament. “If we had played to our standards, we could have beat Knox. I don’t know, maybe we played poorly as a team because Orth’s snoring kept us up all night.”
Because of the tight seeding process for the NCAA tourney, there was only one individual qualifier from the Midwest, but Loehnis does not want to become a pedestrian golfer quite yet.
“I plan on taking the entire summer and devoting all my energy to golf,” he said. Loehnis has committed to caddie and take lessons at Whistling Straits in Sheboygan. After the summer, Loehnis will evaluate his progress and decide whether to go down south to further pursue his golf ambitions.