Golf uses strong final round to continue recent success

By Yan Digilov     3/20/08 7:00pm

With a solid first round and an exemplary third round at last week's Border Olympics, the golf team was reminded why golf is a game of endurance and mental toughness. Despite a near free-fall in the middle of tournament play, the Owls rebounded to finish ninth in the 54-hole tournament, which was held at the Laredo Country Club in Laredo, Texas. The team will be back in action on Monday and Tuesday, taking part in the Carter Plantation Intercollegiate in Springfield, La. The 15-team tournament will feature a mixture of colleges from all across the southern part of the country, most notably Southeastern Conference powerhouses University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University, who are ranked 29th and 37th in the country, respectively. The toughest competition, however, will come from No. 13 University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, which boasts No. 37 Jonathan Hodge.

If the Owls once again start strong, they may not take the field by surprise. Rice's ninth-place finish continues its hottest streak of the year - the Owls have now cracked the top 10 in three straight tournaments. Sophomore Chris Brown and senior Addison Awe led the team in the first round of play on Friday morning, each shooting 71. After tallying 293 over the first 18 holes, the Owls were in a comfortable sixth place in the fourteen-team tournament.

But as the second round began, Laredo became the hottest city in the country and the 105-degree heat began to take a toll on the team. As the second round came to a close, the team fell from sixth to thirteenth and shot a disappointing 316, its highest single-round total on the year. By the ninth hole in the second round, Brown was at even par, but his luck took a turn for the worst. His rough back-nine meant he finished with an 80, and Awe, who could not manage to find his stroke, ended the day with an 82.

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"Everyone just tanked at the same time," head coach Drew Scott said.

After they slipped so far in the tournament, the Owls had little hope of making up the lost ground. However, the team came back with one of the best rounds of the season: Their 288 was the second-lowest score at the tournament. Even more impressively, Brown scored a two-under par 70 for a three-round total of 221, only five over par. His resilience gave him his fourth top 20 finish of the year.

"If you take the first and third round, we did pretty good," Brown said. "Who's the toughest, who's the longest [is what matters]."

Freshman Michael Whitehead also put forth a strong effort in the final round, shooting a one-under 71 on Friday. His 12-over 228 was good for a 42nd-place tie, his highest finish of the year. But he could not match sophomore Michael Buttacavoli, who's third-round 73 propelled him to a 224 and a tie for 29th place.

The University of Arkansas took the tournament championship with a three-day mark of 867, besting second-place Lamar University by five strokes.

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