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CU Golfers Finish Fifth at Louisiana Classics
March 06, 2007 | Men's Golf
No. 52 Southeastern Louisiana maintained its six-stroke lead into took into the final round, winning the meet with an 851 team score; No. 6 Lamar could not make up any ground in finishing second at 857. No. 37 Baylor was third (859), followed by No. 33 SMU (862) and then the No. 62 Buffaloes at 865. The top four teams all recorded the same final round score, 1-over 289s, while the Buffaloes posted a 2-over 290 to close out the action.
This was the 17th time, all consecutive, that the Buffaloes played in this tournament, and CU recorded just its third top five finish here, matching fifth place efforts in the 2000 and 2001 events. The tournament was a favorite of late head coach Mark Simpson, a tradition that has been maintained by new coach Roy Edwards, who came here many times with his old school and alma mater,
Junior Michael Baird was led the Buffaloes as he tied for eighth overall, as he followed a team season-best 66 in Monday's second round with an even-par 72 for a 212 total. Sophomore Derek Tolan posted CU's best round of the day, his second consecutive 2-under 70, as he finished with a 214 total to tie for 11th.
It was Tolan's best finish since an eighth place effort at last October's Windon Memorial Classic, and came one week after he missed his first ever tournament for CU after he didn't qualify for last week's Houston All-American. It snapped a streak of three straight finishes for him in the 40s in the standings.
Senior Blake Moore carded a third straight 73 here for a 219 score, tying him for 25th in the standings. Junior Patrick Grady struggled to an 80, tying for 46th with a 225 total, with junior Tom Gempel finishing up with a 75 to close at 231, placing him 72nd.
“I was very proud of Derek's play here, he had been struggling, but he had a good tournament,” Edwards said. “Michael also had a good event, and Blake was right there shooting 1-over three straight days, but we know we didn't play our best as a team today. We did do a good job of hanging in there and shot a respectable number, and beat some important teams. From the looks of it, nobody lit the course up in the final round, so in retrospect, it may have played tougher than I initially gave it credit for.”
“So I feel like we're definitely improving, and each tournament we're getting better,” he added. “And that's what we need to do, keep improving and work toward peaking at the right time later this spring. Our goal now is to get a couple of good weeks of practice in and then have a good tournament at Stevinson Ranch.”
Kansas' Gary Woodland won his second straight tournament, as he closed with a 2-under 70 for a 205 total, good for a three-shot triumph over Illinois' Patrick Neagle. He also won the Houston All-American a week ago.
T 8. Michael Baird.............................. 74-66-72?212
T11. Derek Tolan................................. 74-70-70?214
T25. Blake Moore................................ 73-73-73?219
T48. Patrick Grady.............................. 72-73-80?225
72. Tom Gempel................................ 77-79-75?231
TOP FIVE INDIVIDUALS
1.
2.
3. Colt Knost, SMU......................... 67-70-72?209
4.
4.
TEAM SCORES 1. SE 2. Lamar...................................... 281-287-289?857 3. Baylor...................................... 290-280-289?859 4. SMU......................................... 288-285-289?862 5. 6. Louisiana-Lafayette................ 289-280-301?870 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. North 13. 14. 15.
