The Georgetown men’s golf team carded a three-round total 888, 48-over-par, Tuesday in their season opener, the Earl Yestingmeier Invitational at the Delaware Country Club in Muncie, Ind. The Hoyas finished in a tie for 11th place with Ohio State. The Toledo Rockets came out on top of the field of 17 schools, posting a 2-over score of 842.

In their first trip to Ball State’s home course, the Hoyas struggled in Monday’s first round. An unfamiliar course complete with tricky greens and a field of competitors that has been playing Delaware Country Club for three years resulted in a disappointing 25-over 305, putting Georgetown near the back of the pack, in 15th place.

But in the afternoon, junior Tim Hager led the team in a surge upwards in the standings, as the men posted a 9-over score of 289 for the second round of the day, leaving them in 13th place at 34-over par.

Hager started the day off with an opening round of 2-over par 72 and came back in the afternoon’s second round with a score of even-par 70, putting him in 14th place in the individual rankings. The rest of the Hoya team also posted improved second round scores, despite having already played a full round in the morning.

“Thirty-six hole days are always tough, always a grind,” Hager said. “A lot of the guys on the team are new, sophomores and freshmen, and it takes a while to get used to it. So it was nice to see the younger guys come back in the afternoon and shoot better rounds.”

Indeed, sophomores Don Thomas and Vincenzo Salina made solid contributions to the Hoyas’ comeback in the second round, firing off scores of 72 and 74, respectively. Thomas stood in 34th place at 7-over par after a first round of 75, and Vincenzo finished the day in 69th place at 14-over par with a morning score of 80. Freshman Brandon Ellis and sophomore Trevor Matese rounded out the Hoyas’ team score, finishing day one tied in 73rd place at 15-over par.

In Tuesday’s final round, Hager again led Georgetown, shooting a 1-over 71. Ellis posted his best score of the tournament, a 3-over 73, followed by Thomas at 7-over 77. Salina and Matese shot a pair of 5-over 75’s, brining the third round team score to 294. Hager’s three-round score of 3-over 213 left him in 10th place and nine shots back from the tournament’s winner, Detroit’s Mark Sommerfeld.

While the first round was somewhat disappointing, Hager believes it will ultimately be beneficial to the team.

“The first round hurt us,” he said. “It would have been nice to get our team score down to 300 to make it into the top 10 on the first day. But a lot of the guys are young, and they bounced back the last two rounds,” he says. “They got a bad round behind them, and I think now we’ll have a good momentum for the next tournament.”

The Hoyas travel to Middletown, R.I., next week to compete in the second event of their season, the Adams Cup, hosted by the University of Rhode Island at the Newport National Golf Club.