Golf finishes in 11th place after second-round stumble
While an 11th place finish would be disheartening to most, it was particularly disappointing for the golf team. After finishing in the top 10 in its last three tournaments, Rice was 11th out of 15 teams at the Carter Plantation Intercollegiate in Springfield, La., which concluded last Tuesday. Through three rounds of play the team shot a cumulative score of 943, 62 strokes behind victorious Middle Tennessee State University.After a two-week break, the Owls will look to right themselves at the North Carolina State Tournament, which runs from April 11-13 in Wallace, N.C. and will feature some of the Atlantic Coast Conference's toughest contenders. The team that will give Rice the most trouble will most likely be host NC State - the Wolfpack recently outperformed seven top 20 opponents to take the top spot at the Hootie @ Bulls Bay Invitational last Tuesday.
Junior Bobby Thomure led the Owls in the first round, shooting a 75 and tying for 12th place overall. Thomure's precision allowed the Owls to land in familiar position, and they were in ninth place as the first round concluded.
Unfortunately for Thomure, his strong start would not last. The junior injured his wrist in an attempt to extract the ball from between a pair of rocks, and, before the day was over, Thomure found himself with an 86-stroke second round.
Senior Addison Awe picked up the squad with a 75 in the second round, but it wasn't enough to save the Owls from falling to 12th place as the day closed. Their second-round total of 318 was six more than their opening-round mark.
"This golf course is probably the most challenging golf course we have played all year," head coach Drew Scott said.
On Tuesday, the team was only able to secure a tie for 11th place with another mediocre day, shooting a combined 313. Three Owls ended up tying for 44th place with individual scores of 238. Chris Brown, whose stellar performance last week helped the Owls move up on the last day of play, finished in 36th place with a 236-stroke score.
"It is frustrating, because it seemed like we were all bunched up in the average," Scott said. "We did not have a whole lot of high points.
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