MADISON—Independence’s golf team kicked off the 2015 season on Thursday with a fourth place finish at the new look Chagrin Valley Conference’s preseason tournament at Powderhorn Golf Course.
Nick Brunsman finished second in the Valley Division with a 79, two strokes off the score of Kirtland’s Michael Schnur, the defending CVC MVP and 2015 preseason tournament medalist. Tyler Wilson shot a 92 and Bobby Roddy finished with a 93 for the Blue Devils.
“It was a tough course,” said Independence coach Mark Echstenkamper. “All the teams, there were a lot of guys playing it for the first time and the score showed. The scores I thought were pretty high. I was very happy with what Nick did. Tyler was very disappointed in his score. It was certainly 11 or 12 strokes higher than what he normally would be. He just didn’t have it today. You have those days.”
Brunsman put in extra time over the summer and it showed as he played consistently well throughout the tournament.
“Nick played really well,” Echstenkamper said. “He’s been playing a lot of tournaments over the summer and it showed. He had the fourth best score overall. He had a good summer and was playing well. In practice he’s been playing well so that’s pretty much what I expected. He and Tyler both can both be in the upper 70s.”
Roddy’s 93 just missed the top 10 in the Valley.
“Bobby has been playing pretty well. He had a 93 and again if you look at the score that was 11th in our division,” Echstenkamper said. “To put that in perspective to what everybody else did, he played pretty well. I was pretty happy with what he did.”
Joey Zamborsky finished with a 101, Joe Rydsynski fired a 109 and Ryan Zygmunt closed out the tournament with a 112.
“(Zamborsky) had a couple holes he struggled with,” Echstenkamper said. “He settled down and played some bogey golf pretty much for the most part. I think he can get that score down and I expect him to do that. Playing on the course for the first time he did all right.”
The Blue Devils return to action on Monday when they travel to the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy Invitational.
