Defending intramural mini-golf champions Defending Champs fell to Tap-Taparoo in Monday night’s first-round action by three strokes, 85-82.

It took nearly all 18 holes to determine a winner at Colonial Lanes; the titleholders were only down by two strokes approaching the final hole.

While Tap-Taparoo’s Chuck Schmitt had three aces on the night, teammate Danny Razowsky’s hole-in-one on 17 gave the pair the two-stroke cushion heading to hole 18.

"[On the] 17th hole he went first, but it wasn’t that good," the Chicagoland native said. "I went third, and I nailed it for a hole-in-one."

A combined team score of 6 on 17 forced the Defending Champs duo of Luke Byerly and Greg Schumacher to putt aggressively on the final hole.

"[I was] thinking it was within a few strokes, so we needed to get it close," Byerly, a sophomore, said. "But unfortunately, that didn’t happen."

Byerly made five on the final hole, and combined with Schumacher’s two, wasn’t good enough to vault a comeback for last year’s champions.

"Felt pretty unfortunate for him," Schmitt said. "I felt bad because, I mean, he pretty much hit it straight right at [the hole]. Sometimes breaks don’t happen."

Schmitt said he competed in last fall’s mini-golf tournament, and he has improved his game in the 12 months since then.

"We had two groups of people, I think we got fourth and fifth," the mechanical engineering major said. "[We shot] like an 85 [last year]."

Razowsky and Schmitt both shot 41 on Monday night and put themselves in strong position with one night of competition remaining. Now, they just have to play the waiting game.

"Hopefully, [we’re on track to win], yeah," Schmitt said after the round.

"I mean we beat the Defending Champs, so it [definitely] was a good start," Razowsky said with a smile.