Malchow leads NIACC men at home invite

NIACC's Bryce Malchow hits a shot on Thursday at the NIACC Fall Golf Invitational at the Mason City Country Club.

September 8, 2022

MASON CITY - Sophomore Bryce Malchow shot a career-best round of 74 and placed third on Thursday to lead the NIACC men's golf team at the NIACC Fall Golf Invitational at the Mason City Country Club.

Malchow's previous best collegiate round was 76 twice during his freshman season.

"It was a great day for Bryce Malchow," NIACC coach Chris Frenz said. "He has really brought a much better mental game to the team this fall. He's got the game to play like this consistently, and with continued success he will."

Sophomore Kai Nelles was next in line for the Trojans with a 75, which was one off his career best round. Also for NIACC, Ryan Berkley shot a 77, Jackson Koebernick shot a 84 and Tim Castle shot a 86.

"Kai Nelles ended with three birdies and showed his mental toughness to shoot a 75," Frenz said. "I was really excited to see Ryan Berkley play well (Thursday).

"He had it going at Galena last week and the wheels kind of fell off. (Thursday), he just battled all day and gave us a solid score. We just needed that fourth score to make a run at the championship."

NIACC tied for fifth in the team standings with a 310. Iowa Central was the team champion with a 302.

For the NIACC B team, Anders Palmquist shot a 83, Bennett Suntken shot a 84, Mitchell Staudt shot a 87 and Elic Fjetland shot a 87.

"Obviously. we're disappointed that we didn't win," Frenz said, "but we have a ton of good things happening from (Thursday's) event.

"It was good to see Anders Palmquist play well (Thursday). We're still working on getting the top five formed as we head to some difficult tournaments, but all these guys are such hard workers, they won't be satisfied with th outcome and they shouldn't be. We had a chance to win, but again we learn from (Thursday) and get better next week."

NIACC returns to action Sept. 17-18 at the Buena Vista Invitational in Storm Lake.

Team standings - Iowa Central 302, Iowa Lakes 304, Hawkeye CC 306, DMACC 306, Waldorf University 306, NIACC 310, Iowa Central 310, Simpson College 328, NIACC B 340.