GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
The No.-37 Pepperdine men’s golf team continued its struggles this week with a 10th-place finish at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate in Austin, Texas. The Waves couldn’t get anything going during the tournament and stayed in the middle of the pack the entire way.
Head Coach John Geiberger said it’s a little frustrating when a couple players play well and they don’t get any support from teammates. He said the guys who don’t play well need to contribute with at least one round.
“There aren’t a lot of teams that have had six players finish in the top 10,” he said. “I know we’re capable of doing some great things, we just need to do it.”
The Waves started the tournament Monday morning with a 12-over par 296 and couldn’t improve on that performance. In Monday’s afternoon round, the men fired a 13-over par 297 to finish in eighth place heading into Tuesday’s final round. Without much hope of winning Tuesday, the Waves closed the tournament with a score of 21-over par 305.
The Waves were led by sophomore Andrew Widmar who fired opening rounds of 70-72 to wind up in second place heading into the final round. However, he couldn’t improve on the final day, posting a 5-over par 76 and a career-best tie for 11th place. Widmar said he didn’t get off to a good start in the third round and also had a few tough breaks on holes 15, 17 and 18.
“I am not happy with the way I finished in the tournament,” Widmar said. “I dropped nine spots and you can never be satisfied dropping any spots.”
Freshman Andrew Putnam also finished in a tie for 11th with rounds of 74-70-74 to continue his great freshman season. Senior co-captain Jesse Barnsley tallied rounds of 76-75-78 to finish in a tie for 45th place.
Rounding out the Waves scoring, senior Colin Wilcox finished in 66th place with rounds of 76-80-79. Finally, red-shirt sophomore Carl Smith finished in a tie for 74th.
Hosts University of Texas won the tournament with a total 16-over par 868. They went in to the final round four shots behind Oklahoma State, but were able to beat the Cowboys by 10 shots Tuesday.
The Waves’ regular season is now complete. They will head to Tacoma, Wash., for the West Coast Conference Championships from April 14-15.
“I’m looking forward to next week, and I really feel that the team is going to come together,” Widmar said. “We’ll all put up some good numbers so that we can defend our conference title.”
04-10-2008
