The greatest 18-hole round in modern Hillsdale College men's golf history led to an accomplishment the Chargers haven't seen since 2019 on Tuesday afternoon.

Senior Filippo Reale became Hillsdale's first medalist in a men's golf invitational since 2019 to help the Chargers place fourth as a team at the Music City Invitational, hosted at the Hermitage Golf Club just outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

Key to Reale's win was a scorching nine-under-par round of 61 on Monday that was four strokes better than any other round in the tournament and bettered the previous modern Hillsdale College men's golf single-round scoring record by three full strokes. 

But even excluding that transcendent performance, Reale played strong golf throughout the 54-hole, two day event to win the title by a stroke over Maddox Burton of Trevecca Nazarene. The senior shot one-over in both his first round and the final round on Tuesday to end with a seven-under 71-61-71=203, giving Hillsdale its first individual champion in an event since Josh Davenport won the Midwest Regional in a playoff on Oct. 8, 2019. Reale's seven-under was just two strokes off the Hillsdale record for 54 holes of nine-under-par set by Joel Pietila in the 2018 NCAA Central/Midwest Super Regional.

To win the title, Reale excelled on Par 3s and Par 4s. He averaged 2.83 strokes per par 3 hole for the tournament, the second best performance of any player, and shot an average of 3.92 strokes per Par 4, the fifth-best performance of any player. Reale also had as many eagles (three) as the other 91 players in the event combined over 54 holes, with all three coming in his record-setting round of 61.

Reale's title helped Hillsdale to a solid fourth-place finish as a team overall, and the best team score since the program was restarted in 2014. Hillsdale shot a 287-272-292=851, surpassing the 858 shot in the 2021 Kyle Ryman Memorial Invite.

Sophomore Ryan O'Rourke placed 21st with a 69-69-75=213 to finish three over par and tied for 21st, and fellow sophomore Robert Thompson tied for 31st with a 72-70-73=216. Junior Maxwell Burns finished 62nd with a 74-72-77=223 and freshman Jackson Piacsek took 71st with a 75-77-73=225, with both Burns and Piacsek providing one scoring round for the Chargers.

As a team, Hillsdale finished in the top five in scoring on both Par 3s and Par 4s for the toournament, and the Chargers' 173 pars were the second-most among all 18 teams in attendance.

The solid result this week should help solidify Hillsdale's spot in the Midwest Regional rankings with just two events left on the calendar. Hillsdale ranked seventh in the region last Wednesday, and should sit safely in the top 10 when the next set of rankings are revealed tomorrow. The top 10 teams in the regional rankings at the end of the season will earn a spot in the NCAA DII Central/Midwest Regional in May. If Hillsdale claims a spot, it would be their first NCAA appearance as a team since the 2020-21 season.

The Chargers have another huge opportunity next week, as Hillsdale travels to Noblesville, Indiana for the Ken Partridge invite on April 6-8. Nearly every major regional contender will be in attendance for that event at the Purgatory Golf Club, and it's also Hillsdale's final regular season event before the G-MAC Men's Golf Championships, scheduled to take place on April 21-23 at the Belterra Golf Resort in Florence, Indiana.

Photo by Tiffany Treppa