LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — Carney’s Hunter Eichhorn has always found himself at the top or very close to it whenever he’s entered a golf tournament since his freshman year of high school.

On Wednesday during the final 36-holes of the 99th Morgan Stanley Wisconsin State Open held at Geneva National Golf Club-Trevino Course, playing against former collegiate players and amateur professionals, Eichhorn started out the day in third place after playing the first two rounds at 5-under-par.

The first 36-holes were split between the Trevino and Palmer courses due to the number of participants in the field, but the final two days were played on the slightly more challenging Trevino course.

Sitting seven shots back of the leader, three time Wisconsin State Golf Association Golfer of the Year Daniel Woltman, Eichhorn started out his first round 2-under-par through five holes before bogeying the par-3 sixth hole to fall back to 1-under. He then rattled off 12 straight pars to finish his first round with a 1-under 71, bringing him to 6-under for the tournament and sitting him in fourth place.

In the final round, Eichhorn burst out of the gates on the front nine, birdying three holes and parring the remaining six to get him to 3-under for the round. After making the turn, he birdied 10 before a few bad swings turned the tides.

He double-bogeyed 11, bogeyed 12 and double-bogeyed 18, playing the back nine at 3-over and finishing the final round at an even-par 72 and locking up fourth place by four strokes. Woltman would go on to win the championship at 18-under-par, three shots ahead of second-place Patrick Stolpe (-15) and 10 shots ahead of third-place Jim Schuman (-8).

“My game felt better this week than it has in a while,” Eichhorn said. “I only made about five or six bad swings all week, but unfortunately most of those led to doubles because they were tee shots that went out of bounds.”

Eichhorn is no stranger to playing in a tournament as big as this. The Carney native plays collegiate golf at Marquette University, so big venues like this are just another day at the office.

“It’s pretty similar as far as the guys on the top of the leaderboard go, someone always has a good week and it’s crazy to see how a few bad shots really takes you out of a chance to win at this level,” he said. “I wouldn’t say there is a drastic difference between this week of play and any college event.”

Never having played either course at Geneva National Golf Club prior to teeing it up on Monday, Eichhorn was able to put together three sub-par rounds and one even-par. That showed him that his game is on the right track heading into his junior year at Marquette where he has already won the 2017-18 Big East Freshman & Player of the Year awards and was a 2018-19 First Team All-Big East selection.

“I went in blind this week and overall I was happy with how I played,” he said. “If I can clean up a few things off the tee to avoid the bigger numbers and keep everything else solid it should be a fun year.”

The Golden Eagles first tournament of the year is Sunday, Sept. 8 at the Gopher Invitational at Windsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minn.