Jaguar men’s golf team finishes 12th in first tournament of spring season
By Justin Brosemer | Sports writer
The Augusta University men’s golf team finished 12th in the Southwestern Invitational in Westlake Village, Calif.
The Jaguars shot a total of 304 on Wednesday, Jan. 27, after being paired with East Tennessee State, St. Mary’s (Calif.) and San Jose State in the final round of the Invitational. They began the day in 11th but would not be the only team to fall in the last day. Arizona State dropped to second, after leading for the first two days of the competition.
San Diego State would make a big surge to win the Invitational after rising two spots in the final day.
The total score of all three days for the Augusta Men’s golf team would be 923, falling one short of San Jose State’s 11th-place finishing score of 922. Augusta would finish with 139 pars, 34 birdies and an eagle spanning the competition. Champion San Diego State finished at 874.
“We didn’t quite have the experience we needed to get the result we desired,” AU Coach Jack O’Keefe said. “The big plus was Ben van Wyk’s performance finishing 11th, proving he can compete with the top players in the country.”
Augusta’s lowest individual score belonged to sophomore Ben van Wyk, who finished his Day Three with a score of 73, bringing his total score to a 220. Van Wyk finished a very respectable 11th in the Invitational.
The other four golfers representing Augusta included Dan Sheenan shooting a total of 232, Hampus Wijkstrom and Alex van Wyk each finishing with 236, and Jack Vajda with 245.
Ben van Wyk spoke with The Bell Ringer about his individual and team’s performance in the Southwestern Invitational after completing the third and final day of holes.
“It was our first tournament in a few months so we can all still sharpen up our games,” van Wyk said. “We have a month to prepare for our next event. Putting was a big focus I heard from the team. We need to make some adjustments. The weather was tough, but I got to give the team credit for the grit throughout the three days.”
O’Keefe spoke about what he saw from his team during the Southwestern Invitational and what it means going forward into different competitions.
“Moving forward, our big focuses will be chipping and putting, as well as course management,” said O’Keefe. “It was a good learning experience, now we just got to keep improving for the upcoming tournaments in about three weeks as well as our postseason in mid-May.”
The final scores and statistics for the Southwestern Invitational can be viewed at the following URL:
http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=stats&tid=21585.
The team now prepares for its next competition in Hilton Head, S.C., where the Jaguars will compete at the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate, taking place on Feb. 22-23.
Contact Justin Brosemer at jbrosemer@augusta.edu.
