After teasing the UW-Eau Claire men’s golf team with beautiful conditions a week earlier, the unusually cold spring weather came back one more time to get them.

With the Blugolds on the verge of qualifying for the NCAA Championships, the winter-like weather forced the Bobby Krig Invitational, hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.), to cancel the second day of competition on Saturday, leaving out a crucial day of golf.

The Blugolds placed third out of 10 teams, but they were unable to beat the two teams ahead of them in the standings, St. John’s (Minn.) and host Gustavus, which left the Blugolds out of the national tournament and brought an end to the season for Head Coach Mike Greer’s squad.

Gustavus won the event with 298 strokes. St. John’s took second with 304 strokes and the Blugolds took third with 310 strokes.

Although the Blugolds were disappointed not to play a second day, Greer said his team still played well because they understood there was only so much they could do.

“What I stress in my guys is just dealing with what we can control,” Greer said. “If we had it our way, we would have played, but it was something that was just out of our control and we left it at that.”

The Blugolds still saw three individuals place in the top 15 out of 50 participants.

Leading the way for the Blugolds Friday was junior Ben Brooks.  Brooks shot a 75 on the day to tie for fifth place.

He said he put aside the fact that it was 30 degrees with gusting winds and snow and he credits that to placing so high.

“It was really a mental grin focusing on the task at hand,” Brooks said. “I think the mental edge I had on people might have been a reason that I played pretty well.”

The lone senior on the team, Tim McCormick, tied for eighth place with 76 strokes.

The Blugolds got a big contribution from freshman Andrew Schmidt, who shot a 78 and tied for 15th place.  Schmidt said he overcame the weather and putted well to help him place high up in the field.

“I had so many layers of clothing on that it was hard to swing, so really my putting compensated,” Schmidt said.

Greer said Schmidt has made a strong contribution in both the fall and spring for the Blugolds and he is looking for big things out of him for the remainder of his career.

“He’s going to be a guy we look to in the future and he’s just all around a good player,” Greer said.

The Blugolds found out Sunday they were not invited to participate in the national tournament. Even though they fell short of their ultimate goal, Greer said it was still a memorable year and a joy to coach the young men on his team.

“We just had a really united group of guys and we’re all in it together,” Greer said. “I think that’s the thing we stress most is being one unit and working towards a goal.”

With all but one returning next year, the Blugolds enter the offseason with optimism.

Greer said he knows his team has what it takes to work hard and take the next step to not only making it to nationals, but placing at it.

“I’m just looking forward to them working hard this summer and look for this group to come together this upcoming fall and really reach the goals that we maybe fell a little short of this year,” Greer said.

Brooks said he can’t wait to get back out on the course in the fall to begin next year’s journey.

“There’s a ton of talent on this team,” Brooks said.  “The guys hopefully see what it takes now and hopefully they want it as bad as I do so I can have a good senior year and hopefully we can go to nationals.”