Men's Golf | 3/29/2016 4:02:00 PM
Final ResultsAUSTIN, Texas – The St. Edward's Men's Golf team saved its best round for last, as it moved up the leaderboard to finish seventh on Tuesday afternoon in the St. Edward's Invitational at the Par-70 6,519-yard Onion Creek Country Club.
St. Edward's (297-292-282=871) started the day in 10
th place, but a solid start to round three had the Hilltoppers hoping for a big jump. The hosts played the first three holes as a team at 3-under par. Down the stretch, St. Edward's was within two strokes of fourth place, but a string of bad luck kept the Hilltoppers down the list. St. Edward's did defeat 27
th-ranked Western Washington (300-297-279=876) along with regional foes Cameron, Midwestern State, and Newman.
"We started off great with some solid play," head coach Todd Ohlmeyer said. "We did stumble down the stretch, but it was a solid round and we beat some good regional competition. We did, however, feel that we could do some damage with this tourney being on our home course."
ANDREW SPEAR (74-74-70=218) and
JOEY HEARN (72-73-73=218) led the way for the Hilltoppers as they finished tied for 17
th place.
Spear had one of the more interesting rounds of the tournament. After playing the first eight holes of his round at one-under, the freshman ran into a buzz saw, making bogey, bogey, double-bogey on the next three holes. Spear rebounded to make a birdie on each of the next three holes. He also added a birdie on his next-to-last hole to move up 12 spots on the leaderboard.
"Andrew started off great but had a hiccup halfway through his round," Ohlmeyer said. "He was able to rebound and string some birdies together that really helped us. He did an outstanding job and that is why he has been in our lineup all year."
Also competing for St. Edward's were
DILLON VAN ESSEN (75-71-74=220) and
ELIOTT AZOULAY (76-77-70=223), who finished tied for 27
th and 42
nd, respectively.
JAY HOGAN (81-74-69=224) posted his second-consecutive score lower than his previous round. Hogan had the lowest score of any Hilltopper in the final round.
THOMAS HOLTZMAN (76-66-78=220) had the lowest finish of any individual at the tournament as he tied for 27
th place.
Western New Mexico's Calum Hill ran away with the individual title as he bested the field of 80 golfers by eight strokes. UC-Colorado Springs had Zach Tripp (72-71-65=208) and Kyle Southard (71-72-65=208) tie for second place.
Ninth-ranked Central Missouri (291-284-276=851) won the tournament on a tiebreaker against UC-Colorado Springs (290-289-272=851). Oklahoma Christian (293-284-281=858) took home third-place honors.
St. Edward's will be back in action Monday as they travel to Dallas, Texas to take part in the DBU Patriot Classic. The two-day, 54-hole tournament will be held at Hackberry Country Club. Live scoring will be available on the Hilltopper Athletic Website.
