Manke Finishes 3rd, Huskies Take 5th At Amer Ari Invitational

WAIMEA, Hawai'i – Washington's RJ Manke scored a 6-under 66 to finish in third place at the Amer Ari Invitational, while the 21st-ranked Huskies finished 35-under par to take fifth place, ahead of three teams ranked in the top 10 in the country.
 
Manke, a fifth-year senior from Lakewood, Wash., recorded six birdies and no bogies for his 66. He opened his round with seven straight pars before making birdie on six of his last 11 holes. He had recorded 5-under 67s on each of the first two days of the tournament, and shaved one stroke off of those scores in his final round. It was his sixth top-3 finish of the season and today's round was his 14th in the 60s this year.
 
Washington finished 35-under for the tournament for its fifth top-five finish of the 2021-22 campaign. The Huskies have completed all seven events so far this season under par. No. 4 Oklahoma State was 24-under as a team on Saturday, and won the three-day event at Hapuna Golf Course with a final total of 814, 50 strokes under par and one shot better than No. 11 Texas Tech, which finished second.
 
"We are probably a little disappointed to finish fifth, at least right now, but it was a really high-caliber tournament," Husky head coach Alan Murray said. "We saw a bunch of the best teams in the country, without doubt, and we proved we can compete with them."
 
Oklahoma State's Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra made an eagle-3 on his final hole to break a tie atop the individual leaderboard. He finished 10-under on Saturday and 19-under for the tournament, besting Texas Tech's Baard Skogen, who held the top spot until the very end, by two strokes.
 
After Manke, the Huskies' top performer Saturday was sophomore Teddy Lin, who shot a 2-under 70 to finish the tournament at 7-under, good for a tie for 23rd place.
 
Playing as in individual, sophomore Taehoon Song moved up 37 spots on the leaderboard with a 7-under 65 on Saturday, tying his career best for low score, and for best score under par. The sophomore, who shot even-par 72 in each of the first two rounds, carded seven birdies and 11 pars in his final round to finish in a tie for 23rd, along with Lin.
 
Bo Peng recorded a 1-under 71 on Saturday to finish 6-under for the tournament, which placed him in a tie for 30th. Noah Woolsey finished 3-under overall, while Petr Hruby was one shot back of him at 2-under, good for ties for 45th and 55th, respectively, in the 115-man field. Drew Warford, also playing as an individual, finished the weekend 7-over.
 
"It was another great tournament for RJ," Murray added. "Teddy played really solid, and Bo had a great first tournament back with the team. Everyone contributed, and that's a really positive thing.
 
"Taehoon shot 7-under, which is obviously really good," Murray said. "We definitely have depth to our squad. The more, good players you can have, the better."
 
The UW team, other than some individual outings in the interim, will have more than a month off before returning to action March 7-8 at the Lamkin San Diego Classic, at the San Diego Country Club.
 
"I'm really proud of the guys' effort," Murray concluded. "We can't wait for our next tournament, in early March. The whole team is encouraged and hungry to do better. We're in a good position moving forward."
 
 
Final Team Leaderboard (top 10; Golfstat.com rankings)
1. #4 Oklahoma State  – -50 (273-277-264 = 814)
2. #11 Texas Tech – -49 (273-267-275 = 815)
3. #3 Arizona State – -42 (268-273-281 = 822)
4. #2 North Carolina – -38 (282-271-273 = 826)
5. #21 WASHINGTON – -35 (273-273-283 = 829)
6. #6 Pepperdine – -34 (278-270-270 = 830)
7. #20 Georgia Tech – --28 (274-284-278 = 836)
8. UCLA – -26 (284-275-279 = 838)
9. #7 Stanford – -25 (276-291-272 = 839)
10. #8 Texas – -17 (285-278-284 = 847)
 
Final Individual Leaderboard (top 5, and UW players)
1. Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, OkSU – -19 (67-68-62 = 197)
2. Baard Skogen, TTU – -17 (66-65-68 = 199)
T-3. RJ Manke, UW – -16 (67-67-66 = 200)
T-3. Mason Andersen, ASU – -16 (65-69-66 = 200)
5. Rayhan Thomas, OkSU – -15 (68-67-66 = 201)
 
T-23. Teddy Lin,  UW – -7 (70-69-70 = 209)
T-23. Taehoon Song, UW – -7 (72-72-65 = 209)*
T-30. Bo Peng, UW – -6 (67-72-71 = 210)
T-45. Noah Woolsey, UW – -3 (69-68-76 = 213)
T-55. Petr Hruby, UW – -1 (70-69-76 = 215)
T-91. Drew Warford, UW – +7 (73-73-77 = 223)*
* - played as individuals