Arizona Battles Loaded Field to Fifth Place Finish
TUCSON, Ariz. – Despite a strong front nine of Sunday's third and final round of the Arizona N.I.T., the Wildcats finished in a tie for fifth in their second home event of the season. Senior Brad Reeves, who picked up his first collegiate win at the Arizona Intercollegiate in January, paced Arizona with a fourth-place finish at 12-under that tied his season best score for 54 holes.
"We had a great start to the round, and I really thought we could make a major move as we turned to the back nine," said head coach Jim Anderson. "Unfortunately, we were not able to finish things off as we made too many mistakes on the putting green. We know we can bounce back, and it will be good to have more chances in great fields in the future. Our team is resilient, and Brad had a great week and is ready for a charge this spring. He's played stellar golf, and we know he can putt himself in a great position any week."
Arizona opened Sunday's round with its top four scorers combing to shoot 9-under par before making the turn into strong afternoon wind gusts that challenged the field. The Wildcats would go on to shoot 2-over par on the final nine holes of the day.
We will go ahead and give Brad the SHOT OF THE DAY ?? for this one! #BearDown pic.twitter.com/iJoWuDQ3ZH
— Arizona Men's Golf (@ArizonaMGolf) March 21, 2021
Senior Trevor Werbylo gave Arizona a top-25 finish for the event at 4-under par. He gave the Wildcats one of their three eagles on the day when he reached the par-5 green on the second hole in two shots before sinking an eight-foot putt for eagle.
The Wildcats tied Illinois for the lowest team scoring average on the course's par-5 holes while finishing in four in par-4 scoring.
Arizona will have a week-and-a-half break before returning to action at the Augusta Hawkins Award Invitational in Augusta, Georgia on Saturday, April 3.