Making the trip to the Pacific Northwest did not suit the Pepperdine men’s golf team except for sophomore Andrew Putnam who led the Waves to a 6th place finish at the Oregon Duck Invitational. The Washington native fared the cold weather well at Eugene Country Club with rounds of 74-70-72 to finish in 4th place. It was Putnam’s 7th top-10 finish of the season and he has not placed outside the top 20.
Despite notching 4th place Putnam said he was dissatisfied with his play during the first nine holes of the tournament.
“It’s kind of disappointing Putnam said. I don’t necessarily measure how I’m playing based on my finishes but rather on how good I feel I play. I definitely think I could have won.”
The Waves were in last place after the first nine holes of the tournament but continually improved over the course of the first day. The Waves’ 290 in the second round was six strokes better than any other team. Pepperdine shot a final-round 300 for a total of 893 finishing 34 strokes behind tournament winner University of Washington.
Head Coach John Geiberger said he didn’t think the weather had anything to do with his team’s bad start but was proud of the heart the team showed in coming back and shooting the best round of the afternoon.
“It’s a little frustrating because we should have finished a little higher Geiberger said. Basically we had three guys play the five spot this week and we only need one guy to do that. If we get a guy to play three and four we finish second realistically. We just have to keep working and try to get better at this game.”
Redshirt freshman Josh Anderson began the third round tied with Putnam but a 42 on the final nine dropped him to 17th place. A large gap separated the Waves’ top two finishers from the bottom three. Redshirt sophomore Chad Vivolo shot 80-75-75 to tie for 50th. Junior Shane Mason tied for 53rd after rounds of 77-78-76 and sophomore Austyn Karle evened out the Waves’ scoring with rounds of 82-73-77 to tie for 59th.
Pepperdine will head to Austin Texas for the Morris Williams Intercollegiate on March 30-31.
Geiberger said he still has to decide whether he will change the lineup for the next tournament.
“I’m trying to set a lineup for postseason he said. But who knows where we’ll be.”