GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
The Pepperdine men’s golf team finished play at the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational on Wednesday with a tie for ninth place. Players at the tournament at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., braved tough winds gusting and swirling in different directions up to 15-20 miles per hour.
“We had three guys finish in the top 25 and normally when you do that you’re going to have a pretty competitive event,” Head Coach John Geiberger said. “We know we can be competitive with some of those top 5 and top 10 teams. We just need to be more consistent.”
The Waves started out well with a 6-over par 294 as a team to end day one in third place. However, the men couldn’t improve on their first day total, shooting 10-over par 298 in the second round and 14-over 302 in the final round.
Individually, senior Jesse Barnsley led the Waves with an eighth-place finish after firing rounds of 72-72-73 to finishing 1-over par for the tournament.
“I’m a little disappointed, I obviously wish I would have won,” Barnsley said. “But I’m happy with how I hung around in the tournament and scrapped together some good rounds.”
Senior Eric Shriver started out the tournament very well with two consecutive 73’s, but a final round of 6-over 78 dropped him into a tie for a 25th finish. Freshman Andrew Putnam continued his solid play in his first year with the squad, also finishing tied for 25th. Putnam started with a round of 73, stumbled in the second round with a 77, but finished strong with a 73 in the final round.
Rounding out the Waves’ scoring, sophomore Shane Mason tallied an 82 in the final round to finish tied for 69th at 19-over par. Finally, senior Colin Wilcox finished tied for 74th after carding a final-round 78 to finish at 20-over par.
Alabama led the tournament the entire way and captured the team title with a total of 9-over par 873. The Crimson Tide was led by last summer’s United States Amateur runner-up Michael Thompson. He finished the tournament in a tie for fifth place at 1-under par 215. Teammate Mark Harrell also finished in fifth place after firing the same exact rounds as Thompson, 72-71-72.
Joel Sjoholm of Georgia State University captured the individual medalist honors with rounds of 69-70-70 en route to a five-stroke victory over three players who finished at 2-under par.
The Waves are back on the links when they travel to nearby Westlake Village, Calif., to participate in the USC Intercollegiate March 3-4.
“We’re looking forward to it, it’s always nice to have a tournament close to home,” Geiberger said. “We have a lot of members out there who support us and it should be good.”
02-21-2008
