The men’s golf team finished its second tournament in two weeks with a 7th place finish at the windy Morris Williams Intercollegiate in Austin Texas. The Waves struggled in the final round posting a 26-over par 310 to fall two places and 43 strokes behind tournament winner Oklahoma State University who won by 25 shots.
Once again sophomore Andrew Putnam paced the Waves with rounds of 75-71-78 to finish tied for 19th place. He still has not finished outside the top 20 all season. Redshirt freshman Josh Anderson closely followed Putnam by firing a final round 74 to climb 12 places to finish tied for 23rd.
“This golf course was one of the toughest set ups I’ve seen in my life and some pins were just stupid and sometimes questionable Anderson said. They’re having regionals there so they wanted to see how tough they can make it.”
Junior Shane Mason could not muster a birdie over his final 36 holes and finished tied for 32nd with rounds of 76-75-78. Redshirt junior Carl Smith started the final round tied for 21st but shot an 84 to finish in a 50th-place tie. Finally redshirt sophomore Chad Vivolo could not get anything going during the entire tournament and finished tied for 58th with rounds of 78-76-80.
“The final round was tough from a course set up standpoint Smith said. You had to rely on a little bit of luck with some bounces and the wind.”
On Monday April 13 Pepperdine travels to Hiddenbrooke Golf Club in Vallejo Calif. for the two-day West Coast Conference Championships where it will attempt to match or surpass last year’s second place finish. Pepperdine will enter the Championships as the favorite but the Waves haven’t won the WCC tournament since 2006-2007 and finished four strokes back of San Diego in 2008.
“We have to retrain our guys that [conference] is important to us Head Coach John Geiberger said. It’s a big deal for our program and our school and we want to get back into the winner’s circle.”
Geiberger said he is still unsure of who he will send for the tournament. The top three spots are firmly held by Putnam Anderson and Vivolo but he said the rest of the team has not been consistent enough. Smith Karle and Mason are all vying for a spot in the postseason run.
“If we want to contend for nationals we have to start beating teams like Oklahoma State and USC Geiberger said. We’re beating teams in the top 10 like we did at Myrtle Beach and when we won at Arizona. We have some pop but we’re just not that consistent. We’re consistently inconsistent.”