Golf finishes fall schedule

By Stacey DeFever, On-Line Forty-Niner

Tuesday, November 3, 1998

The Long Beach State men's golf team finished 12th in its final competition of the semester at the Herb Wimberly/Coca-Cola Classic in New Mexico Oct. 26-27.

The tournament was scheduled to go three rounds but the final round was canceled after a night of heavy rain.

Leading The Beach was John Mallinger with a two-round-total of 143 which is one-under-par. Mallinger placed 12th out of 95 golfers at the tournament.

Other LBSU golfers contributing to a total score of 592 were Brian Merrick, who finished four-over-par with a score of 148, Steve Mena with 151 and Sean Brocklebank with 152.

University of New Mexico's Wil Collins missed the course and tournament record by one stroke. Collins scored eight-under-par with a two-round-total of 136.

Finishing first in the tournament was the University of Texas at Arlington with a four-player-total of 574.

Bob Livingstone, CSULB men's golf coach, said the last round the men played on Monday was the best they had played all season.

Livingstone said the men have the rest of the semester to do well in school. Then they plan on using December and January to work on improving their games.

Although the team had a disappointing semester, Livingstone said the members can build on their last round and keep the momentum going.

Players are evaluated by a company that collects statistics on them throughout the season, Livingstone said.

"This way, they all know exactly what they need to work on for next semester," Livingstone said.