Arizona men’s golf finished third place in the N.I.T. at the Omni Tucson National Golf Course that took place from Feb. 25-26. Senior George Cunningham finished tied for seventh place in the individual leaderboard. The third place finish gives the Wildcats their third top-five finish in a row and fourth on the season.
The ‘Cats finished the tournament at an impressive 34 under par but their effort wasn’t enough to take over first place. University of Las Vegas Nevada took first place by scoring 50 under par as a team.
Once again, the ‘Cats took on the challenge of playing 54-holes in just two days. The tournament started on Sunday with round one and most of round two, then on Monday the golfers finished the remaining holes of round two and the final round of the tournament. After day one of the tournament, the ‘Cats found themselves in third place as a team and were able to maintain that third place status until the tournament was over.
“We have a very good team and I couldn’t be more proud of how we have started the spring,” Arizona head coach Jim Anderson said to Arizona Athletics. “We have an appetite to improve and we certainly can remain humble understanding the areas we can improve. That said, to shoot 34 under par as a team was outstanding. We have much to look forward to and seeing the confidence build up will be great moving towards the next event.”
The ‘Cats showed their ability to score well on the individual leaderboard as well. Five golfers from Arizona finished the final round in the top-25. Cunningham placed tied for seventh, giving him his fourth top ten finish on the year. Freshman Trevor Werbylo placed tied for ninth behind a round two score of 66, the freshman’s lowest 18-hole score of his career. Sophomore Brad Reeves jumped eight spots up the leaderboard on the final day to finish tied for 12th place. Sophomore David Laskin placed tied for 19th for Arizona along with fellow freshman teammate Tianlang Guan.
“Today was a good day for us as a team. We didn’t win but we finished at 34 under par, which is unbelievable that we are able to shoot that far under. We are looking really good for the rest of our spring semester and hopefully will continue this good play and get one or two more wins,” Cunningham said to Arizona Athletics.
Not far outside of the top-25 was junior Dylan Stein who competed as an individual for the ‘Cats during the tournament. Stein finished tied for 27th using his second round score of 68 to jump up the leaderboard.
The ‘Cats add another accomplishment to the season. In late January the team won their first tournament of the season and at the N.I.T yesterday, Arizona shot their lowest 54-hole team score (830).
Arizona will take a break this weekend and in two weeks will travel to San Diego, California to compete in the Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic. The ‘Cats will compete at the San Diego Country Club on March 12th and 13th.
Follow Cory Kennedy on Twitter
