Carbondale Reporter

The Southern Illinois Salukis men's golf team completed the Ka'anapali Classic in Lahaina, Hawaii, finishing 8th overall with a 25-under-par team score. The tournament featured a strong field of competitors, and the Salukis managed to recover after a challenging first round.

The team began with a 9-under score on Monday, matched that performance on Tuesday, and closed with a 7-under final round. Anthony De Schutter led the team with a 9-under finish over three rounds (-2, -4, -3), tying for 18th place individually. Freshman Ben Keil contributed an 8-under total (-2, -3, -3) to tie for 25th. Senior Blake Saffell tied for 34th at 6-under (-2, -3, -1). Sophomore Michael Mikus finished at 2-under (-3, +1, E) in 56th place, while freshman Jaeseung Na ended at 9-over.

Head coach Justin Fetcho commented on the team's consistency but noted areas needing improvement. "We played solidly for a lot of the golf tournament. Unfortunately, each day we just had too many careless mistakes that cost us and over the course of three days and playing against very good competition, it caught up to us," Fetcho said.

"This course presented a lot of birdie opportunities and we took advantage of a lot of those holes. However, we just had to count too many bogeys and it wiped away a lot of those good things we were doing for a majority of the rounds. We were able to see that our good golf could hold up against some very good teams this week, but they are able to do a better job of managing their over-par holes, which is something that we have to work on throughout this offseason if we want to continue to see improvements."

Fetcho also highlighted the performances of his top finishers: "Anthony and Ben had some very solid play this week with both of them finishing in the top 25," Fetcho said. "Both were able to shoot three consecutive rounds in the 60s, which shows their consistency throughout the event."

Looking ahead, Southern Illinois will begin its spring season at the Palmas Del Mar Collegiate in Puerto Rico starting Sunday, February 8.

For updates on the team’s progress through future tournaments and events, fans can follow Southern Illinois Salukis men’s golf on X (@SIU_MGolf), Facebook (@Saluki Men's Golf), and Instagram (@siu_mgolf).