Jaguar men's golfers tied for 10th place after first day of Southwestern Invitational
By Justin Brosemer | Sports writer
The Augusta University men’s golf team found itself in 10th place after the first day of the Jaguars’ debut tournament of the 2021 spring season on Monday, Jan. 25, in the Southwestern Invitational.
The tournament is taking place in Westlake Village, Calif., at the North Ranch Country Club. The tournament lasts three rounds, all consisting of 18 holes in which 12 teams are competing for the tourney title.
Augusta is competing with five players, including brothers Alex and Ben van Wyk, Dan Sheehan, Jack Vajda and Hampus Wijkstrom. The van Wyks were tied for low honors for AU at 4 over par after the first 18. Wijkstrom was next at 9 over par.
The Jaguars’ combined team score Monday was 28 over par. Augusta had a total of 49 pars, seven birdies and no eagles thus far into the competition. Although a bit of a slow start, AU Coach Jack O’Keefe has the upmost confidence in his players and plans to adjust and enjoy the rest of the competition.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to perform on this beautiful course in California considering everything that’s going on in the world,” Coach O’Keefe said. “I like how we started on the front 9, and we have time to rest and adjust tonight and two more days to improve on our back nine moving forward in the Invitational.”
Alex Van Wyk, a golfer for the Augusta Jaguars, also spoke about his and his team’s performance post-day 1 of the competition.
“Individually and collectively, we had a shaky start,” Alex Van Wyk stated. “We know we are much better than our scores today and we are going to play our best to bring it back.”
His brother, Ben Van Wyk, also spoke about the team’s performance after the first round.
“Everyone is super excited to be playing in such a prestigious event hosted by Pepperdine, the number 1 ranked team in the country,” Ben Van Wyk said. “As a team, we are doing quite well but the treacherous conditions ended up getting the best of us in the final stretch. We have some great talent and I am positive we can bring down some big names this week.”
The other teams competing include host Pepperdine, Arizona State, California, East Tennessee State, Georgia Tech, Saint Mary's, San Diego State, San Jose State, SMU, Louisville and USC.
Arizona State was the team leader after Day One with SMU second.
The tournament marks the 42nd edition of the Invitational. Augusta has competed in the tournament six times before this year. In last year’s competition, Augusta previously placed 12th.
Live scoring can be viewed at:
http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=21585.
Contact Justin Brosemer at jbrosemer@augusta.edu.
Alex van Wyk opened play in the Southwestern Invitational with a 4-over-par round, the same score as his brother, Ben van Wyk. (file photo)
