Poor
final round costs 49ers at tournament
Jon
Cook/On-line Forty-Niner
Jon
Cook/On-line Forty-Niner
Senior
Torey Edwards, seen above, finished tied
for 31st as Long Beach State hosted its
annual golf tournament at Virginia County
Club, the Del Walker Intercollegiate.
By
Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach State men's golf team was off
to a great start as host of the Del Walker
Intercollegiate before suffering through
the final round and finishing tied for seventh
place.
The
49ers were in first place after the first
two rounds at Virginia County Club Thursday
and red shirt freshman Bret Lederer was
in second place among individuals, but every
player shot over par Friday dropping them
to seventh and Lederer tied for fifth.
Head
coach Bob Livingstone was disappointed in
his team considering it is the team's home
course and the position the 49ers were in
going into the final round.
"The
good news is that we are basically a very
young team," Livingstone said. "Three
of them are freshman and with a little bit
of experience they will be able to handle
[situations like Friday's final round] better."
The
seventh place finish was especially disheartening
for Livingstone because he held a qualifying
round for all of his golfers to determine
which five would compete for the team in
the tournament and Todd Saukkola did not
qualify. Saukkola finished in fourth place
and better than anyone from The Beach and
with his scores instead of the lowest 49er
golfer the team would have won the tournament
for the first time since 1999.
Lederer
was disappointed after his final round of
77 and said that he was pressing because
he wanted to win the tournament. After he
struggled through holes early he began to
try too hard and aggressively instead of
just trying to play for par and let the
birdies come.
"He
wanted to win so bad, he tried to make something
happen on the back [nine holes]," Livingstone
said of Lederer.
The
tournament was named for former coach Walker
who Livingstone credits with saving men's
golf at The Beach. Walker, who coached the
49ers for 10 years and has been a member
at Virginia Country Club for 63 years, led
the campaign to save the sport at LBSU in
1991, the same time the school got rid of
football.
The
campaign raised $60,000 in the first weekend
which was enough to support the sport for
five years and save it from abolishment
at The Beach.
UC
Riverside won the tournament and the University
of Texas San Antonio finished second at
the beautiful country club in North Long
Beach. San Antonio coach Chris Donielson
said this is his favorite course of all
that his teams play and not just because
his team was playing well.
Donielson
made Livingstone promise to invite to the
tournament next year because of his love
of the Virginia.
Chris
Stroud of Lamar University finished in first
among the individuals with UC Santa Barbara's
Brian Six came in second.
The
final round performance was even more disappointing
because the 49ers had the chance to beat
many of the teams in the Western Region
which will be important when the season
winds down in the spring.
The
49er golf team will be off until Feb. 2
when it will travel to Arizona to play in
the Ping-Arizona Intercollegiate.
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