Golf
team finishes sixth at UCI Anteater Invite
By Michael Bower
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach State men’s golf team suffered
through tough weather in the final round
of the Anteater Invite in Newport Beach
shooting a 309 to hold on to sixth place
with a three-round total of 906. Torey Edwards
led the way for The Beach tying for 12th
place with a score of six over par 224.
UC Riverside buried the competition early
by shooting the lowest score in each of
the three rounds. Riverside shot a 286-287-301
to win the tournament by 18 strokes over
second place finisher UC Irvine. UTEP’s
Chris Barlya took home the tournament title
with a three under par 213.
The
Beach came into the third round of play
on Tuesday in sixth place with just a two-stroke
lead over San Jose State. After the rain
delay halted the tournament in the morning,
San Jose State shot a miserable round of
314 to drop out of contention with The Beach.
Cal Poly made a run at the 49ers by shooting
a 306 in the final round, but it wasn’t
enough to overcome its first round score
of 307, and The Beach took sixth place by
two strokes over Cal Poly in the 11-team
tournament.
“It was very unenjoyable, it was cold and
raining,” head coach Bob Livingstone said
of the weather conditions Tuesday. “We actually
had a one hour suspension of play.”
Chris Gilley had a tough third round for
The Beach shooting an 83. Gilley was in
10th place after shooting a 74-71 in the
first two rounds of action, but fell victim
to the horrible weather conditions on Tuesday
and finished tied for 23rd with a 12 over
par 228.
“The weather was a big part of it, the delay
was a big part of it. It was just one of
those things that just happen,” Livingstone
said. “After the rain delay he got some
bad breaks and had some bad shots and things
just snowballed from there.”
“I am still trying to figure out what happened,”
Gilley said. “I don’t know if the weather
was a factor or my mind was just not in
it because I was convinced they were going
to call [the tournament].”
Tyler Mays is off to a struggling start
for the 49ers in the spring season. The
senior is coming off finger surgery and
has yet to make a positive impact for The
Beach. Mays shot rounds of 73-85-76 in the
tournament. He repeated last weekend’s mistake
of shooting a poor second round and ended
up tied for 38th place.
The other two participants in the tournament
for the 49ers were Robert Sul and James
Logeman. Sul shot fairly consistent with
an 80-75-76 to end up with a 231 on the
tournament and tied for 26th place. Logeman
failed to follow up his great performance
from last weekend in Arizona where he finished
in 11th place. He had a tough time throughout
each round of the tournament shooting a
77-80-80 to finish with a 237 and tied for
45th place.
“[Logeman] just didn’t play well,” Livingstone
said. “He had two days where he was getting
caught up on school work and I think that
hurt him a little bit.”
Livingstone was disappointed with his team’s
performance in the tournament and very surprised
at the success of other teams.
“I was very surprised on how Riverside played.
I don’t think any of us expected Riverside
to do this good,” Livingstone said. “I thought
that the top six teams that finished were
very very equal. We just didn’t get the
job done and some other teams did.”
Next up for the 49ers is the Pacific Coast
Intercollegiate held at Pasatiempo golf
course in Goleta, Calif. March 31 and April
1. Last year the team finished 16th in an
18-team field. Tyler Mays led The Beach
at the event ending the tournament at 222,
six over par and tied for 17th place overall.
Mays will be looking to jump start his season
with a strong tournament and better the
fortunes of the 49ers as well at this year’s
PCI.
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