Liberty Men’s Golf Team Finish Fall season on Par

• Liberty men’s golf team looks to play big in the Big South Conference in the spring semester.
• Golfers Mickey Demorat and Ervin Chang lead Liberty’s team in fall semester tournaments.

The Liberty Men’s Golf team is halfway through the regular season, and the team is looking to heat up during the winter break.

In the first half of the season, Liberty competed in five tournaments around the southeast. The first tournament was the Rod Myers Invitational hosted by Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, Sept. 16. Senior Mickey Demorat finished the tournament eight under par, giving him the tie for fourth place in the tournament. The team finished in seventh place in the season opener.

Liberty’s second tournament came a week later at the Shoal Creek Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama, hosted by the University of Alabama Birmingham. With a team stroke of three under par at the end of 54 holes, the Flames earned second place. Junior Gabe Lench finished one under par and sophomore Evrin Chang finished two under par. In an interview with Liberty Flames Sports Network, Chang said he felt confident in the Shoal Creek Invitational.

“Everything was going really well,” Chang said. “I was hitting my drives down the fairway, hitting my shots into the greens, and made a few puts.”

Despite earning Big South Golfer of the Week for his performance at the Shoal Creek Invitational, Chang said there is always room for improvement.

“I did make a few mistakes,” Chang said. “I could have played better.”

The next tournament was the First American Mortgage Intercollegiate in College Grove, Tennessee Oct. 8. The tournament was almost called off due to severe weather from Hurricane Nate, but the conditions were good enough to play.

The weather did not deter Demorat, who played his best rounds of the season, from shooting +1, -3, and -4, giving him an overall score of -6 and finishing in second place.

Demorat’s performance in the First American Mortgage Intercollegiate was his personal best, beating his third-place finish last year at the Sun Trust Gator Invitational. Due to Demorat’s great play and freshman Alexandre Fuchs’ final round score of five under par, Liberty secured fifth place at the First American Mortgage Intercollegiate.

The team traveled to the Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, Texas, for a tournament hosted by #8 Baylor University Oct. 23. After the first two rounds of the tournament, Liberty held on to third place. All five Liberty golfers were shooting par or right under par, with Chang under 70 for the first two rounds. The Flames struggled on the final day of the tournament, mainly due to the inconsistent weather patterns and 30 mph wind gusts. Liberty finished the weekend in 10th place.

For the final tournament of the fall section of the season, Liberty attended Loxley, Alabama, for the Steelwood Collegiate Invitational at the Steelwood Country Club hosted by University of South Alabama Oct. 28. Chang led the team with a score of 74, 73, 71, giving him a final score of two over par. The Flames finished the tournament in seventh place with a team score of 28 over par.

Liberty looks to start the winter portion of the season strong with their attendance at the Sea Best Invitational at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Feb. 5. Demorat and Chang look to lead the team far into the Big South playoffs and have hopes for doing well in the NCAA national tournament.