Men's Golf Finishes Third at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate
Lihue, Hawaii- The Utah Men's Golf team finished in for third place out of an 18-team field at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate after shooting 11-under (853). Four Utes finished inside the top 30 as the team earned its fifth straight top five finish.
The Utes opened the two-day tournament tied for fifth after shooting 4-under (284) through the first-round tailing 18 birdies along the way. In round two the team shot 1-over (289) slipping two spots on the leader board to seventh through 36 holes. In the third and final round the team would make a huge leap climbing four spots to claim third after shooting 8-under (280) on the final 18. 8-under is the teams best in a final round this season.
INDIVIDUAL BREAKDOWN
Sophomore Javier Barcos tied for the team lead shooting 4-under (212) through three rounds of play. Barcos through two rounds was 1-under (143) but exploded in the final round to shoot 3-under (69) to climb the leader board 12 spots and finish in a tie for 12th. This is the star sophomores team leading third top 15 finish of the season.
Redshirt Freshmen Martin Leon also had a big tournament shooting 4-under (212) to also tie for the team lead at 12th. Leon got off to a blistering start for the team shooting 3-under (69) and closing out day in a team high 12th place. In round two Leon shot even par (72) and closed out the tournament shooting 1-under (71) to climb the lead board six spots. This is Martin's fourth top 25 finish of the year.
True freshmen Braxton Watts also competed for the Utes and finished in a career high tie for 20th. Watts shot 2-under (70) in the opening round of play to tie for 16th amongst the field. The freshmen also had a strong final round climbing the leader board 16 spots after shooting 2-under (70) for a tournament score of 1-under (215).
Rounding out the team for Utah was seniors Blake Tomlinson and Tristan Mandur. Tomlinson had a huge final round climbing the leader board 14 spots after shooting 2-under (70) in the final round for a tournament score of even par (216). Mandur tied for 44th after a huge final round propelled him up the leader board 16 spots to give him a tournament score of 5-over (221).
TALKING ABOUT THE ROUND: HEAD COACH GARRETT CLEGG
"We had a great round today. This is a quality field, and we were the low round today by four strokes so that's fantastic. 17 & 18 are absolutely brutal holes. They are hard as is it gets, but today the wind was blowing about 12-20 mph into the wind and a lot of players were posting really high numbers. We had some high numbers as well, but we played the holes better than the other teams. The best part about today is that we got off to a great start and continued our really solid play the rest of the way. It was really nice to have four players under par and even though Tristan's round didn't count, he was right there. It was a really good tournament for the team. Martin and Javier were outstanding, and Braxton had a great tournament in his second event for the team. I'm really proud of the boys."
UP NEXT
The team will be back in action February 28th to compete in the Lake Las Vegas Invitational in Las Vegas, NV.
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