SHUHEI MATSUO
Sports Assistant
Despite a couple of impressive finishes in the past two tournaments, the Pepperdine men’s golf team found itself at the bottom of the leaderboard in this week’s National Invitational Tournament.
The Waves concluded the 15-team event with the 15th place after shooting a 20-over 884 at the par-72, 7140-yard OMNI Tucson National Golf course in Tucson, Ariz.
While No.-21 Pepperdine struggled in its neighbor state, its neighbor school, UCLA, registered three under-par scores to claim a 7-shot team title over Arizona State with an impressive 14-under 850.
Host school Arizona State was two shots off the lead after the second round. But the Sun Devils finished the tournament second with a disappointing third round score 5-over 293. Minnesota’s 861 placed third and was followed by Texas Christian’s 863 and USC’s, which rounded out the top 5.
Individually, New Mexico’s Jay Choi posted a total score of 6-under 210 to claim individual medalist honors over five players who shot scores of 5-under 209.
Pepperdine junior J.J. Wood carded a final-round even-par 72 to tie for the16th place with seven other golfers. Wood was the only Wave who ended the three-round tournament with an even-par score.
Wood said the course was not too difficult, but required accurate tee-shots at some holes.
“If you are hitting well, you can score well,” he said.
Although Wood posted team’s only under-par score, the Waves, who finished the last two tournaments in the top 3, could not bring the momentum to this tournament.
One of the reasons for this was the unexpected news of sophomore Colin Wilcox, withdrawing from the tournament after the first round because he fell ill, Wood said.
He also said Wilcox’s withdrawal caused a bad vibe, which significantly affected the rest of the team’s performances.
The Waves are next in action Monday when they participate in the Morris Williams Invitational at the Austin Country Club in Austin.
Sophomore Jesse Barnsley, who is expected to play in the Morris Williams Invitational, seemed ready to be back to the traveling team.
He said his game is coming along even though he has been making a few mistakes and shooting a couple of over-par scores.
“This is like the biggest tournament in the regular season,” Barnsley said. “I’m really excited for this.”
03-30-2006
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