By Michael Travis
Editor in Chief
The Pepperdine men’s golf team headed to the land of sun and flowered leis last week for the Taylor Made Big Island Intercollegiate Tournament to compete against 26 of the nation’s best colleges.
Pepperdine tied with Arkansas State for ninth place in the overall standings with a collective team score of 856. The three-day, 54-hole tournament was held at the Waikoloa Kings’ and Beach Courses in Kona, Hawaii.
Other schools at the tournament included UCLA, Georgia Tech, Fresno State, Texas Christian and the University of Southern California. Many of the teams there were ranked in the top 20 nationally.
Sophomore Michael Putnam was the top finisher for the Waves, landing an individual 11th place finish with a three-under-par total of 211, posting rounds of 72-66-73.
“Technically it was my best tournament of my career so far,” Putnam said. “I got to play some good players on the last day. Some were All-Americans.”
Pepperdine’s next finisher was sophomore Brian O’Flaherty, who clinched a 38th-place finish with a total final score of 215. He posted rounds of 72-73-70.
“(In Hawaii) the wind usually blows about 40 miles per hour,” Putnam said. “But this year the wind only blew on the first day. After that the weather was perfect and the team had a great time.”
Pepperdine men’s golf usually travels to compete in the Hawaiian tournament each season. However a change in this year’s rules provided more inspiration for the team to do well — only the top 10 finishers in the tournament would be allowed to return next year.
“We played decent overall, but it wasn’t our best effort,” Putnam said. “It was good enough to secure a spot for next year, though.”
The Waves were forced to play catch-up for practically the entire event, after finishing the first round of play in a tie for 14th place. They posted a 5-over-par score of 293, tying with Fresno State.
The second day of competition saw the Waves jump four places in the standings to 10th place overall. This was due largely in part to the fact that three of five Pepperdine golfers improved their game by almost as much as 10 strokes.
“One of our strengths is that we have five guys on the team who have the potential to win the tournament individually every time,” Putnam said.
He said these players included himself, O’Flaherty, junior Randy Creighton, senior Brandon White and freshman Chris Elliott.
The final round of the tournament brought the Waves to their final ranking of ninth place.
The men’s golf team will return to action March 3-4 when the team competes at the Cleveland Golf/USC Southwestern Intercollegiate at the nearby North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village.
According to Putnam, Pepperdine will have an advantage in the tournament.
“North Ranch Country Club is actually our home course,” he said. “We should do fairly well.”
February 20, 2003