Men's Golf | October 17

VERO BEACH, Fla. – Graduate Student Tommy Dunsire (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) set a Northern Illinois University men's golf team 18-hole scoring record at the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational, which wrapped up Monday at Quail Valley Golf Club.
 
Dunsire shot an eight-under par 64 in the second round on Sunday, eclipsing the previous NIU 18-hole scoring record of 65 set most recently by Thomas DeMarco at the Northern Intercollegiate in 2017. He was one-under par through his first six holes, then made an eagle at the par-five third hole. Dunsire followed that up with three straight birdies to put him at six-under for the round. An eagle at the par-five tenth put him at eight-under as three straight pars wrapped up his bogey-free, record-setting round of 64.
 
"The strength of Tommy's game is his iron play which was outstanding in that round," said head coach John Carlson. "He holed putts early to get momentum going and then to make two eagles on difficult par fives with approach shots over water kept that momentum going."
 
Dunsire finished the tournament tied for 29^th with a career-low 54-hole score of six-under par 210 after bookending his 64 with rounds of 73.
 
Sunday's second round also saw NIU post its lowest team score of the season with a seven-under par 281. Ben Sluzas (Lockport, Ill./Lockport) and Ian Bruchhauser (Temecula, Calif./Great Oak) both shot even par 72 in the round with Zach Place (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) posting a one-over par 73.
 
"Quail Valley provides an opportunity for most of the players to hit driver and make the holes shorter," Carlson said. "Strategy off the tee is certainly more of an aggressive mindset knowing that you're going to need to make birdies at a place like that to keep pace with the field."
 
Sluzas had NIU's lowest score in Monday's final round with a four-under par 68. The sophomore was at even par through his first nine holes before making back-to-back birdies at six and seven. An eagle on the tenth moved him to four-under par. Sluzas bogeyed his second-to-last hole of the day but made a birdie on his final hole to finish with a 68. He finished the tournament tied for 53^rd with a one-under par 215.
 
Campbell Wolf (Mechanicsburg, Pa./ETSU) led NIU with an even par 72 in Sunday's opening round. After a 75 in round two, Wolf shot even par on Monday to finish tied for 70^th at three-over par. Place also was three-over for the tournament after carding a 72 as well in the final round.
 
NIU finished 16^th as a team with a 54-hole score of four-under par 860. North Florida won the tournament by three strokes over Liberty and the hosts Michigan State. The field included six teams ranked in the GolfStat top 50, including the winners #42 North Florida, #32 Cincinnati who finished fourth and fifth-place #48 Northwestern.
 
"We dug ourselves a hole in the first round going six-over," said Carlson about the team's performance. "Even shooting 11-under in our last two rounds, we were not able to move up from the position that we put ourselves in. We've now competed in the same pairings as teams ranked inside the top 50 almost every week, so we're seeing what we need to get to that level and what we need to clean up as we move forward. We're better than we have been in the past but still have room to grow as we prepare for Poppy Hills and another solid field with a lot of Pac-12 teams."
 
The Huskies next compete at the Poppy Hills Classic, hosted by Saint Mary's at Poppy Hills Golf Course, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.
 
--NIU--