This week's Missouri Valley Conference Golfers of the Week include Valparaiso's Rob Politza, UNI's Tanner Dinnebier, and Belmont's Sloane Biddle.
Valpo's Rob Politza (Lemont, Ill.) finished out a top-3 finish in an 87-player field as the Beacons concluded play at Rice’s Bayou City Collegiate Classic at the par-72, 7184-yard Westwood Golf Club in Houston on Tuesday. Politza finished Round 2 with a 68 (-4), matching his strong showing from Round 1. He turned in a clean Round-2 scorecard with four birdies and no boxed-in numbers. Politza played the third round at even par, finishing the tournament with a 54-hole total of 208 (-8). He was one stroke away from cracking the program’s all-time top-10 for 54-hole tournament in relation to par, as his round is tied for 12th. Only three players in program history have had better tournaments than the one Politza posted this week – Caleb VanArragon (4x), Anthony Delisanti (6x) and Nick Seitz. This was the best Valpo tournament by someone other than Delisanti and VanArragon since Seitz set a then-program record at -10 in 2014. Politza tied for third with three others, two strokes behind Texas’ Sterling Hurd and Middle Tennessee’s Connor Henry, who shared medalist honors at -10.
The UNI men's golf team wrapped up play at the Bluejay Invitational in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday, Sept. 22. The tournament was individual placement and no team scoring. Leading the way in the invitational with a one-stroke win was Creighton's Owen Price. He finished with a score of 210 (-6). Tanner Dinnebier once again led UNI in scoring with a five-under score of 211 over three rounds. He was one stroke off of first place, carding a 74-68-69, turning it up on round two and three. This is his lowest placement on the leaderboard since the WIU Intercollegiate last year, where he also finished second.
Junior Sloane Biddle (Old Hickory, Tenn.) earned her 12th top-20 finish in her last 13 events dating back to last season (and her second top-20 finish this season) as she took 16th of 75 golfers at the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational, played on the the par-72, 6,291-yard layout at the University Club of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. She fired a three-round 71-72-73=216. Biddle leads the team with 72.5 average, while the Bruins took 13th place at the event. Sloane established a program record for most career player of the week awards with her eighth weekly honor.
Elsewhere, Belmont freshman Jackson Whaley picked up his first career top-10 finish as he tied for eighth place at 207 at the Grahame McDowell Invitational held this week at Inverness Country Club in Birmingham. He posted rounds of 69 and 70. Whaley finished six strokes back of the medalist, Jacob Rose of Tennessee Tech.