AU men’s golf heads into last day of Southwestern Invitational

By Justin Brosemer | Sports writer

The Augusta University men’s golf team completed their second day of the Southwestern Invitational in Westlake Village, Calif., at the North Ranch Country Club.

The team was tied for 11th place with a Tuesday (Jan. 26) score of 303, moving into the third and final day of the tournament. Although the team performed better than their matchups the previous day, the entirety of the field of teams improved. 

The biggest jump was made by East Tennessee State as the Buccaneers jumped up three spots from ninth to sixth. The biggest drop was shown by the University California, which moved opposite of East Tennessee State, falling from sixth to ninth. Arizona State remained in first place at the Invitational. 

AU Assistant Coach JP van der Walt spoke with The Bell Ringer after Day Two’s performance about what he saw from his team and the field after the competition.

“Overall, we like what we are seeing out there,” said van der Walt. “It’s all about getting our players back into peak form coming off a long hiatus spanning from the fall to now. We hope to go out there and play to the level we know we’re at [on Wednesday].”

Ben van Wyk, who had the lowest score of round two for Augusta, also spoke about his thoughts about the Invitational post-competing.

“Today we had better conditions, but the scores were still not where we want it to be,” van Wyk stated. “Well, we need to regather ourselves and find a way to minimize shots tomorrow, and we can do that by just managing the greens better.We are hoping for a few good rounds out there tomorrow.”

The last day of the Southwestern Invitational will be held today, Jan. 27, as the Jaguars hope to improve their placing before heading home and preparing for their next tournament.

Live scores can be found at http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=21585.

Contact Justin Brosemer at jbrosemer@augusta.edu.