While competition was tough for the Saluki men’s golf team in its season opener at Edwardsville, several SIU golfers showed promise during the two-day, 54-hole tournament.

At the end of day one, the Salukis found themselves in 9th place out of 12 teams. The team finished 25 strokes over par combined in the two rounds.

Two Salukis found themselves tied for thirteenth place after day one, but both had a different way of getting there. During his first day, junior Wade Thompson was one stroke over par with a 73 in the first 18 holes. On the next 18 holes he finished two strokes over par with a 74.

“It would have meant a little bit more to finish top ten … but it meant a lot for the first tournament of the year, being a new guy on the team, as a transfer and to show that I can play with these guys,” he said.

It was a different story for sophomore Drew Novara, who ended up with the same 147 stroke score as Thompson after 36 holes. Novara shot five strokes over par on his first round for a 77, but came back to shoot two strokes under par for a 70 on his final round of the day, which ended up being the best 18-hole score for the Salukis during the weekend.

Novara said he was pleased shooting a 70, his new SIU career low.

“I was five over after the first round, and I think I knew that some of the other guys would struggle also,” Novara said. “My coach had me playing as the two man, so I just wanted to play like a two man would have.”

Day two did not look much better for the Salukis. Junior Andrew Mitchell, who played as an independent golfer, had the team’s best score from the final 18-hole round with a 71, one stroke under par. Thompson kept his consistent scoring and shot one stroke worse than his previous round with a 75. Novara struggled in his final round and posted another score of five strokes over par (77).

The Salukis remained in ninth place as a team through the final round. Overall, the team finished 36 strokes over par for a score of 900.

Coach Leroy Newton said he was disappointed in how his team faired over the weekend.

“I did not like to finish ninth,” Newton said. “I really don’t know how I feel about the tournament because this was our first one, we have a lot of new kids, and we played some good golf but we also had some stretches where kids made double and triple bogey and I’m not used to that.”

Belmont University won the tournament at two strokes over par. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville finished its home tournament in second place at nine strokes over par, while fellow Missouri Valley Conference teams Drake and Missouri State tied for seventh place at 29 strokes over par and MVC team Bradley University finished fourth at 24 strokes over par.

Although Drake and Missouri State finished ahead of SIU, Newton said the Salukis can compete with the two teams and will be ready to play come conference matches.

“At the end of the year we are going to beat them,” Newton said. “We are looking forward to playing with them, I think we can play with them.”

Newton said where the team placed does not reflect how well they performed on the course.

“If they told me ahead of time we were going to shoot 36 over, I’d have thought we’d finish higher than ninth,” Newton said.

The men’s golf team has its next tournament in Normal Sunday and Monday at the Weibring Invitational.