The Lake Forest College men's golf team closed out the three-day St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Champiomship Tournament with a program record score of 276 (-8) on Tuesday and finished in a tie for fourth place.
The five Foresters playing in the event closed out the round strong, combining for 11 birdies and an eagle in their final five holes. In fifth place for most of the final round, they caught Illinois College at the end and their 54-hole score of 873 was just two strokes behind third-place Spalding University. Mississippi University for Women won the event at 858, five strokes ahead of runner-up Webster University.
The program's previous best round was a 289 at the Wisconsin Lutheran College Spring Invitational in 2023 and, until this week, the lowest three-round total in team annals was a 901 at the 2023 SLIAC Championships.
With an eagle and two birdies on the final three holes of his collegiate career, senior
Tyler Nielsen finished Tuesday's round in just 68 shots to match the program record for an individual. He was three shots under par on the day and tied for 19th place out of 65 players in the tournament with an 8-over 221. Nielsen was also named to the SLIAC All-Sportsmanship Team.
Nielsen would share the team's 54-hole record with last year's performance by current junior
Chris Petri but two of his teammates were even better over the last three days. Sophomore
Ben Shamberg and freshman
Tyler Schick combined for eight birdies on Tuesday and were each just a shot behind Nielsen at 69. They earned First Team All-SLIAC honors with Shamberg placing sixth with a program record total of 214 and Schick seventh at 215. Schick was also named SLIAC Newcomer of the Year.
Petri carded a 1-under 70 in the third round and tied for 24th in the field with a final score of 224. Fellow junior
Luke Duffer's 73 in the final round put him in a tie for 33rd place at 231.
Lake Forest finished 2023-24 with a scoring average of 302.92, a school record by nearly three-and-a-half strokes. Shamberg led the team individually at 75.16, a mark that ranks second in program history.
