Marquette Wins The 2017 Big East Men’s Golf Championship!

Trailing by 17 strokes after two rounds, Marquette men’s golf shot a team total two-under par on the third final day of the conference tournament at Callawassie Island in South Carolina to win the 2017 Big East championship by just one stroke over Seton Hall. It’s the third Big East title for Marquette golf, and the second in three years. That brings Marquette’s total for Big East championships in the 2016-17 school year up to four along with women’s soccer, women’s basketball, and women’s indoor track & field.

The big swinger for Marquette this year was freshman Matt Bachmann, who won the individual title. Bachmann shot an even par 216 (73-71-72) to win by two strokes, with Butler’s Joey Arcuri and Seton Hall’s Lloyd Jefferson Go and Gen Nagai all finishing at +2. Bachmann won the team tournament on his final putt of the tournament. Nagai missed a putt for birdie on the par-4 18th giving Bachmann breathing room to bogey the hole to clinch the team title. Bachmann missed his par putt after Nagai’s birdie attempt, but sank the bogey putt, rendering Nagai’s final shot meaningless.

DePaul began the day as the leader in the tournament at +20, but shot a +24 on the final day to drop to 4th place on the leaderboard. As the Blue Demons failed to card a round better than +2 in the third and final round, Marquette fired home five rounds all better than anything DePaul could muster, including a rousing three-under from freshman Matt Murlick. The freshman from Winnetka, Illinois posted five birdies on the day, including four on the back nine to power Marquette’s rally to the top of the leaderboard. Besides catching and passing DePaul, the Golden Eagles still had to fend off Seton Hall and Georgetown along the way on the third and final day of the event, as the Pirates finished one stroke back at +36 and the Hoyas were +37 across 54 holes.

Bachmann’s individual title is the third individual Big East title for Marquette, following in the footsteps of Ted Gray in 2008 and Patrick Sanchez in 2015. Probably not coincidentally, the Golden Eagles also brought home the Big East title in each of those tournaments.

You can relive all the drama from the 18th hole via the Facebook Live streaming from the Big East.

Marquette will return to action in two weeks, as their Big East title earns them an automatic bid to the NCAA championship regionals.