The UA men’s golf team finished in ninth place at the end of the two-day Arizona Intercollegiate tournament at Sewailo Golf Club in Tucson Tuesday.
Arizona tied for eighth with Iowa State at the end of day one but fell back one place on Tuesday afternoon.
“We had a strong start today and really battled to hang in there with tough playing conditions,” said head coach Jim Anderson in an interview from Monday.
Day one consisted of high winds and a suspension of round two due to darkness just before 6 p.m., but winds were not nearly as problematic on day two of the tournament.
Arizona junior George Cunningham shot 4-over par early on, securing a sixth place finish for day one, but finished 17th overall as the top scorer for the Wildcats with a score of 219 (+6). Cunningham was on a roll in the middle of the front nine in the third round with back-to-back birdies on holes four and five. However, after another birdie on hole 11, Cunningham fell apart, scoring back-to-back double bogeys on his way to shooting a six-over par in the last four holes. The stretch of poor play took Cunningham from a potential top-five finish to holding on to the bottom of the top 20.
Following Cunningham were Jordan Gumberg, David Laskin, Redford Bobbit and Brad Reeves. Gumberg and Laskin tied in the tournament for 42nd (+14), while Bobbit and Reeves tied for 53rd (+17).
“I’ll stay patient and make my birdies when I can,” Cunningham told Arizona Athletics Monday.
His advice must have hit home for Bobbit, a senior, as he had four consecutive birdies on day two of the tournament.
Top-ranked competition kept the match intense, as No. 20 Oregon finished in first place overall in the tournament, followed by Pepperdine and Washington.
Oregon redshirt senior Wyndham Clark also took first overall for all individuals; tied for second were Andre Garcia from New Mexico and Carl Juan from Washington.
Eighteen programs competed in the tournament, including six schools from the Pac-12 Conference. Arizona finished fifth overall out of the Pac-12 schools.
Up next, the Wildcats will travel to Hawaii for the John Burns Intercollegiate tournament. The three-day tournament begins on Wednesday, Feb. 15 and concludes on Friday, Feb. 17.
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