The Valparaiso University men’s golf team escaped the cold of Northwest Indiana by starting the spring season with the first day of the three-day, 54-hole Dorado Beach Collegiate, hosted by UNCG at the par-72, 7119-yard TPC Dorado Beach Sugarcane course, on Sunday. Dorado, P.R. featured 80-degree temperatures and bright sunshine at tee time.
 
How It Happened

• Senior Anthony Delisanti (Sanborn, N.Y. / Niagara Wheatfield), currently ranked the No. 107 golfer in the nation by Clippd, started his final collegiate spring with a solid round. He stroked a 69 (-3) to finish the day tied for 11^th in a 102-player field.
• Delisanti birdied six holes to counteract three bogeys in the opening round.
• Sophomore Elliot Lee (Tillamook, Ore. / Tillamook) joined Delisanti as Beacons who started the tournament with rounds of par or better. He got through the course in 72 strokes, putting him at t-37 going into the second round. Lee had four birdies but was hurt by a double bogey on Hole 4.
• Sophomore Adam Melliere (Zionsville, Ind. / Zionsville) and senior Sam Booth (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) had Valpo’s other counting scores at 74 and 76, respectively.
• Freshman Rob Politza (Lemont, Ill. / Lemont Township), golfing as an individual, posted a 73 (+1) to finish the day at t-53. Politza’s day was highlighted by the ninth hole, when he eagled a par 5.
• Jeff Nelson (Winthrop), Matthew Downes (Bryant) and Kelvin Hernandez (UNCG) are tied for the top spot on the player leaderboard at seven under. Host UNCG is -15 and owns the team lead.
• The Beacons hold a team score of +3, 13^th of 16 on the team leaderboard.

Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring
“We haven’t competed in four months since the end of October. It’s always exciting to get the spring season started, play on actual grass turf and see how the practice over the winter translates to the golf course. Starting here in February, we have our challenges to fight against any level of expectations and balance that with solid execution. I’ve been very pleased with the quality of our practices indoors over these past four months.”
 
“We had a number of positive takeaways from today’s first round. Despite inconsistent shots throughout the round by each one of the guys, they still were grinding and kept their poise. Mentally, they were sharp and did not get carried away with their emotions after good or bad shots. They executed their pre-shot routine very well and they had good clarity working through their processes, whether off the tee, from the fairway or on the green. Lastly, I was pleased to see that we did not miss hardly any putts inside of 5–6 feet, which is a tribute to their winter practices.”
 
“Anthony led our team with six birdies today. He hit 78% of his greens and 79% of his fairways, so the ball striking was sharp. While Elliot made four birdies, he didn’t hit the ball quite as well as Anthony. His chipping and putting was tremendous, getting up and down seven out of nine times and he had 29 putts for the round. We’re going to need to make more birdies tomorrow and improve our accuracy off the tee if we want to enjoy some lower scores.”
 
Up Next
The second round in the three-round Dorado Beach Collegiate at TPC Dorado Beach in Dorado, P.R. will take place on Monday.