Lindenwood's dominance over the rest of the HAAC in men's golf continued on Tuesday as the Lions won their 10th straight conference championship. Three Lions golfers placed in the top four of the individual standing and Lindenwood won the team competition by 14 strokes.
After two rounds, it appeared the competition would be a battle between Lindenwood and Missouri Valley. The Lions grabbed a four shot advantage over the Vikings with a 293 first round score, and then added another four strokes to their lead with a 296 in round two. In Tuesday's final round, Missouri Valley shot the third-worst score of the day, allowing Lindenwood to easily win the team title after another sub-300 round.
Lindenwood finished with a team score of 886. Evangel used a strong third round to finish as the runner-up with a 900. Rounding out the top four were Graceland with a 910 and Missouri Valley with a 911.
Individually,
Richard Docherty held the lead after the first two rounds with a three-over 145. However, he was overtaken in the final round by Evangel's Tim McGinnis after McGinnis shot a four-under 67 on Tuesday, the best round of the entire tournament. Docherty ended up second with an eight-over 221.
Paul Colditz and
Morgan Leigh both tied for third just one shot back of Docherty. Colditz was consistent throughout the tournament with three rounds of 74. Leigh struggled in the first round but bounced back and shot just one-over during the final two rounds.
Lourens Kleynhaus just missed earning all-conference honors after tying for ninth-place with a total score of 226. Rounding out the squad was
Jonathan Haedt who tied for 16th with a 231. Both of those players had two of their rounds contribute to the team score, including each having a low of 74.
With the victory, Lindenwood earns an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship, which will be held on May 18-21 at TPC at Deere Run in Silvis, Ill.