It was Hole 18 of Round 3 of the NCAA Urbana Regional, and even in the closing moments of his four-year, accomplishment-filled collegiate career, Valparaiso University men's golf senior Anthony Delisanti (Sanborn, NY. / Niagara Wheatfield) was still finding new ways to impress us.
 
Sporting the dark Valpo polo and the dark cap with the gold "V" embroidered on the front – and his sunglasses as usual firmly placed on the back of his cap – for the final time in his collegiate career, Delisanti lined up a birdie putt as he prepared to take one final swing as a Beacon. As the ball fell into the cup, a par-4 birdie on 18 completed a stellar round and one last vintage Delisanti late-tournament push.
 
The Valpo legend, who will someday take his place among the greatest to ever represent our institution in the Valpo Athletics Hall of Fame, carded an 18-hole score of 65 (-6) in Wednesday's final round, leading the entire 75-player field outright in Round-3 score at the par-71, 7533-yard Atkins Golf Club. In a field that featured all of the best players in the Midwest and some of the best players in the country – including the No. 1 player in the nation, 15 players in the top 100 nationally and three in the top 12, Delisanti stood all alone atop the Round-3 leaderboard.
 
"The challenges with consistent ball-striking and shot execution in the first 27 holes of the tournament were overcome in Anthony's final 27 holes," Valpo head coach Dave Gring said. "After he walked off the ninth green and Anthony was standing on the 10th tee yesterday, I told him to simply forget about the first half of the tournament and focus on finishing the second half of the tournament well. The reset worked and Anthony played his final 27 holes at eight under par. As he had demonstrated for the past four years in competition for us, he showed his resiliency and resolve, making the mental and pre-shot adjustments that he needed to get back to a good rhythm and playing tempo."
 
His 65 on Wednesday ranks tied for sixth in program history, behind only his own five rounds of 64 or better. His score in relation to par of six under also ranks tied for sixth in program history behind four of his rounds and one of Caleb VanArragon's.
 
Delisanti's majestic day – which was played in beautiful conditions with bright sunshine overhead but began a bit tardy after a 30-minute morning fog delay pushed back all tee times – opened with a birdie-fest on the front nine. He birdied four holes in a six-hole stretch from two to seven, three par 4s and one par 5. His hole-2 birdie, a hole that he bogeyed in each of the first two rounds, set the stage for his day-long dominance.
 
After making the turn with a 32 (-4), Delisanti – who was playing alongside Kentucky's Jack Schoenberger and NC State's Nick Mathews on Wednesday – had three more birdies on the first five holes of the back nine. He owned a clean scorecard through Hole 15 and was seven strokes under par. The New York native hit his lone blip of the day on 16 and 17 with back-to-back bogeys, before finishing with the aforementioned birdie on 18, a hole that he had bogeyed a day prior.
 
During his patented Round-3 push, Delisanti climbed 34 spots on the player leaderboard,
earning a top-20 regional finish at t-18 with a 54-hole score of 213 (E).  
 
"A lot of things have to go your way out here to play a good round, that's for sure," Delisanti said. "A lot of things did go my way today. I drove it pretty much perfectly today. A couple more putts went in. You've got to be in the fairway out here. I know I said it at the beginning of the week, and the first two days I was not in the fairway enough. I probably hit 10 or 11 fairways today, and that was a huge difference."
 
Delisanti finished with a career scoring average of 71.15 over 131 rounds, breaking the program record previously held by his former teammate Caleb VanArragon, who finished his five-year career in 2024 at 71.24. Delisanti finished this season with a 30-round season scoring average of 69.70, second in program history and eight-hundredths of a stroke behind VanArragon's 2023-24 single-season record, perhaps fitting that each player owns one of the program's most significant marks after they served as a one-two punch for Valpo golf.
 
"It was a real joy for me to walk the final 18 holes with Anthony today and be a part of one of his best rounds of the year and career," Gring said. "Anthony hit nine of 14 fairways in regulation and the five he missed were within a foot or two of the fairway. He hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation and he got up-and-down on three of the four holes he missed in regulation. Besides his chip-in for birdie on Hole #2, he made two five-foot birdie putts, one six-foot birdie putt, three seven-foot birdie putts and a nine-foot birdie putt on his final hole. His wedges and irons into those birdie holes were exemplary. We have seen these types of tournament finishes out of Anthony over the years, and it was thrilling to enjoy that type of shot-making today."
 
Delisanti started the Regional by struggling in Monday's round, shooting five strokes over par. He improved to +1 on Tuesday, but still fell short of his high standards. His legacy was already cemented and his place among Valpo's all-time greats across all sports already established, but going into Wednesday's final round, everyone following along knew that such a storied career shouldn't – and just couldn't – end on a sour note. And he made sure it wouldn't.
 


Before stepping off the 18^th green, Delisanti shared a warm embrace with longtime Valpo head coach Dave Gring, who recruited Delisanti to Valpo and fostered a special relationship with him over the last four years. Just minutes after walking away from the final hole and turning in his last collegiate scorecard, Delisanti stood near the first tee box – about 10 feet away from where he had teed off the special round some five hours earlier – this time with his sunglasses in the more traditional location covering his eyes, Delisanti reflected upon what the last four years meant to him.  
 
"It's hard to put it into words right now," he said. "I'm glad I was able to finish it up on a good note. All kudos to Coach. He's done everything for me, him and Coach Ron (Gring) have made me such a better player from the time I stepped on campus to today. I can't thank both of them enough. It's been amazing. Four years has been a lot of time. I'll be best friends with my teammates for the rest of my life, and that's the coolest part. I know I have Coach Gring and Coach Ron to fall back on whenever I need them. Valpo will always be there for me."
 
Michigan individual Hunter Thomson took Regional medalist honors, nabbing the lone individual qualifying spot available for the upcoming NCAA Championships. He posted a 54-hole score of 203 (69-67-67). Delisanti was tops among the seven Missouri Valley Conference golfers in the field (five Illinois State, one Murray State, one Valpo). Illinois State finished 10^th of 13, while No. 14 Illinois, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 35 UNLV, Troy and No. 23 Texas Tech were the five advancing teams, finishing the Regional in that order.
 
"The leadership, competitiveness and resiliency that all four of our seniors demonstrated this year was very impressive to me," Gring said. "I'm grateful for Anthony Delisanti, Sam Booth, Grant Norman and Sam Schmidt and how they led our team in practice, on the golf course in competition and in the classroom. The team winning percentage, the amount of tournament wins, the records and the grades that the four of these seniors achieved in their time at Valpo is really quite remarkable. They have really raised the bar for our program and they were a part of us having representation in the NCAA Tournament for four consecutive years. While I will dearly miss competing with these guys next year, our entire team and I can't wait to see what they achieve in their pursuits after Valparaiso University."
 
Wednesday's round was a fitting end for Delisanti, reminding us of so many of those special rounds over the last four years, starting with his remarkable six-under back nine at the 2022 Missouri Valley Conference Championship to rally and take medalist honors as a freshman with a 213 (-3, 74-72-67). He repeated his MVC title in 2023 with a 200 (66-64-70), then saved his best work for postseason play in 2024, winning the National Golf Invitational with a 201 (71-62-68).
 
Now, he'll turn the page to the next chapter in his golf career.
 
"I'm going to stay amateur for most of the summer," Delisanti said. "I'll play a lot of amateur tournaments this summer; I have a couple of exemptions that I'm looking forward to. I'll play a Korn Ferry Tour event in Chicago at the end of July, and then we'll see what happens, hopefully a couple more sponsor exemptions and then I'll try to follow Caleb's footsteps and play with him."