Aggies vault into top four
ABILENE, Texas (September 15) – A good round and a spectacular round added up to a fourth place finish for the Cameron men’s golf team at this week’s season-opening tournament in Abilene, Texas. After shooting a first round team score of 293 on Monday, the Aggie men soared into the top five with a 279 team score today. With the tournament’s second-lowest second round score, CU took home fourth place and a total of 572 strokes.
“We played really good although we did have a couple of hiccups,” Head Coach Jerry Hrnciar said. “Other than that we played really well, and did several things very well.”
This week’s event was the annual installment of the Charles Coody West Texas Intercollegiate tournament, hosted by Abilene Christian University at the Diamondback Golf Course. Like last season, fifteen teams competed in the West Texas Intercollegiate. CU placed second in 2008-2009.
“We made quite a few more birdies between rounds, 10 more than the first round in fact,” Coach Hrnciar said. “We made fewer mistakes and we played the par fives better. We improved by about eight shots on par fives in the second round and that makes a huge difference.”
Newman University won the team title in a two-hole playoff with Texas Wesleyan today with a total team score of 570 (289-281). ACU freshman Adam Carpenter, playing in his first collegiate event, won the individual title with a score of 138 (69-69) following a four-hole playoff with TWU’s Drew Koonce.
Cameron’s top finisher was sophomore Garrett Smith who paced the Aggies in both rounds. With a tie at 10th place, Smith was the lone CU golfer to finish in the top ten.
Senior Brett Leavell shot the Black and Gold’s only sub-70 round with a 68 second round score. He finished the tournament in a tie at 20th place with a two-round score of 144 (76-68).
Newcomer Jason Timmis (junior) and seniors Robbe Trout and Peter Svajlen all finished in a deadlock at 27th place with tournament scores of 145. Timmis went 75-70, Trout 74-71, and Svajlen 73-72.
“We convinced ourselves that we can play as well as we have been qualifying, but we are still disappointed that we didn’t win it,” Coach Hrnciar said. “We went in with the intent to win it and we had a chance to win it today. We didn’t lose it because of today’s play, we lost it because of yesterdays play; we had too much of a hill to climb. Overall this was a positive tournament.”
The Aggie men’s golf team hosts the annual Territory Classic next week (September 21-22) at The Territory Golf and Country Club in Duncan, Oklahoma. CU finished in a tie for 7th place at the event last year.
