LaTour Intercollegiate provided what Schilling was looking for as host, Nicholls coach

As the host of the event, Nicholls coach James Schilling got pretty much what he wanted out of the LaTour Intercollegiate tournament which concluded Tuesday at the LaTour Golf Club in Mathews.

“Anytime you are hosting an event like this, your No. 1 priority is having the course ready with logistics,” Schilling said. “We had a lot of Southland schools, so you want to put on a good show. I thought we did that. The weather cooperated.

“The players had a really good time. They really enjoyed it. We saw some really good golf. The conditions were much tougher for the final round. We saw what the course can do whenever the wind blows. It was fairly benign for the 36-hole day (on Monday).

Stephen F. Austin won the 10-team event with an 851 total at -13. The Lumberjacks put on a strong final round to outdistance second-place Southeastern Louisiana. The Lions finished with an 857 total at -7.

Brooks Pawlak of Houston Christian took individual honors at -8 and a 208 total. Jake Smelser finished second at -6 and a 210 total.

The numbers were on par with that the Nicholls coach said he was expecting from the layout of the course.

“I had predicted before that if the wind did not blow a whole lot, I felt after the first round 67 would be the low score, and I believe that’s what it was. The scoring average was definitely up today,” said Schilling.

Getting a chance to play on their home course under tournament conditions, the Colonels placed sixth in the event.

Nicholls shot a total of 874 to finish at +10. After shooting rounds of 283 and 291 on Monday, the Colonels shot 300 on the final day under tougher scoring conditions with a wind blowing out of the east at approximately 15 miles per hour.

“Our team really got off to a hot start. I was really proud of them,” said Schilling. “We struggled in our final round. In the beginning, they kind of held on, but the problem was once you get over par like that, the wind started blowing even harder and we weren’t able to come back like we were in the second round. We just didn’t have enough birdie holes out there.

“It’s still our best performance of the year. We finished basically in the middle of the pack. We still have a ways to go to catch New Orleans, Southeastern, Incarnate Word (in the SLC), but with a very young team, at least we are seeing some progress.”

Two freshmen and a sophomore paced the Colonels.

Freshman Chase Pochylko finished tops among Nicholls players. He shot rounds of 71, 71, 73 for a 216 total and in a tie for 12th place at even par.

“I was hitting the ball pretty well. I had some bad shots every now and then, which led to some higher numbers but I putted pretty good today,” said Pochylko.

Jack Moro, another freshman, shot a final-round 73 to finish with a 218 total to place 23rd.

“I struggled at the start of it with the wind a little bit and I scrambled well my first five holes. I made a lot of six- to eight-footers for par, which was good,” said Moro, assessing his play. “I was two over at one point and got to the front nine again and played my final five holes two-under, so it was a nice finish. Overall, I was pretty happy with my performance.

“At the end of the round, I just got a lot of confidence. My final five holes, I was really striking the ball and I would walk up to the tee box just knowing where the ball was going. At the start, I just didn’t really have that confidence, so I was doing a lot of grinding, a lot of scrambling.”

Zachary Morvant finished in a tie for 26th, Diego Prat Cruza in a tie for 35th, and Mickael Najmark in a tie for 43rd.

For Najmark, the lone senior on the team, it was his final LaTour Intercollegiate performance of his career.

“It’s the end of a cycle. Everything finished where it started. It was kind of cool to play at home for my last tournament,” said Najmark.

Playing as individuals for Nicholls were Dylan Weber, Thomas Danielson, Peyton Canter, and Collin Jones. All are freshmen, except for Canter, who is a junior.

The wind definitely changed conditions on Tuesday, according to Najmark.

“We got to play the practice round Saturday and Sunday and there was no wind, so we felt like the course was playing really easy. With no wind (Monday), we saw the scores were pretty low, but yet, the wind picked up today and the scores are really different. Here, when the wind picks up like that, everything is in play – bunkers, water, everything is in play. It’s a completely different course.”

A completely different course, but not all holes are harder, according to Moro.

“It made some holes a lot harder, but it also made some of the holes a lot easier. I know the two par 5s on the front nine played significantly easier because they were so downwind. It allowed me to hit both greens in two and have eagle putts. Some of the other holes were very challenging into the wind and you were hitting long irons into par 3s, and long irons into par 4s,” Moro said.

The young Colonels, Schilling said, got to experience their home course under tournament conditions.

“It was tournament competition. It was tournament preparation, too, meaning the greens were quicker. Everything was faster,” said Schilling. “Those things combined, when it’s tournament ready, your margin for error is very thin versus when the greens are slow or the grass is longer, and stuff like that. Missed shots aren’t penalized as much.”

Once the wind picked up on Tuesday, Schilling said, the course made believers out of a few sceptics.

“I had a couple of coaches mention to me that this course is not really showing its teeth, that it’s not playing very difficult. I mentioned to them, be careful making that statement because when the wind starts to blow, it can be extremely difficult out here. This is only 10-15 (mph). You can have when it’s blowing harder. They saw what the course can do. There weren’t that many low scores.”