In its first tournament of the spring 2010 season Pepperdine’s men’s golf team placed sixth in the Arizona Intercollegiate tournament held earlier this week at the Arizona National Golf Course in Tucson Ariz.
Pepperdine senior Shane Mason reflected on his first impressions playing in the Arizona desert.
“It’s definitely a different style of golf Mason said. Playing in the desert playing in Arizona it’s definitely target golf…You have to be very accurate. You know you are going to have to be accurate because if you are not you are going to be in the cactus Mason said.
In the three rounds of the tournament, the Waves scored 284, 275 and 288 cumulatively between the six players that participated. Pepperdine’s final total was 847, placing them in sixth place between Texas A&M, 841, and University of Nevada Las Vegas, 848.
The Waves finished five-under on the par 71 course, but failed to defend last year’s championship, as California scored 823, winning the tournament by one stroke under host Arizona.
You know you always want to win especially in a tournament where we won last year Mason said.
Despite a shaky first nine holes in the tournament, Mason picked up his game and said he played pretty consistently.
For the most part I stayed out of the desert Mason said. It was a steady start to the season. We beat some teams but we didn’t beat the teams that we really wanted to beat.”
Mason and junior Andrew Putnam scored the best rounds for the Waves both finishing the three rounds with a total of 212. Senior Carl Smith and junior Andrew Widmar both finished the tournament with three strokes more than Mason and Putnam scoring 215. Sophomore Josh Anderson brought the Waves home with a score of 216.
Putnam sunk 16 birdies total over the two-day event and Mason walked away with three. Putnam and Mason tied with other players in the tournament for 24th place overall.
Smith and Widmar both tied for 33rd overall in the tournament and Anderson tied for 40th ending his last round with three birdies.
“You hate to say that it [the tournament] was just ok. We didn’t play well but in the same regard we didn’t play bad either Mason said.
Mason said Head Coach John Geiberger told the Waves to put the recent tournament behind them and to turn their focus to the tournament coming up next month.
This is my last semester and I realize that this is the end of the line. This is my last shot at playing college golf and I want to end it the right way Mason said. It’s important to have seniors on the team because there is that sense of urgency there is that sense of ‘ok we need to finish it off right right now.'”
The Waves will play in the USC Intercollegiate tournament at home March 1 and 2 at the North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village.
“I expect that the hard work is to be paying off and that we are going to kick some butt in the spring Mason said.
