The Sam Houston State University men’s golf team finished eleventh at the All-American Intercollegiate at the Golf Club of Houston in Humble.
This is the first time in the 2017-2018 season that the squad has finished a tournament outside of the top 10. Their lowest finish of the season before this past weekend was a tournament in Princeville, Hawaii Oct 29-31 at the Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational where the team finished in sixth place.
Starting on Friday, the Bearkats shot a team total of 285, led by sophomore Noah Steele with an opening round 68. The opening round of 285 put them in seventh place heading into day two on Saturday. However, SHSU fell apart by scoring a 293, placing them way back in the standings before ultimately finishing No. 11 in the final standings after a Sunday round of 289.
In the Friday round, Steele was able to impress the field and his coach by shooting his opening round of 68. This would be the lowest round total of his weekend as he shot a 74 on Saturday and a 73 on Sunday for a grand total of -1 under par. Steele had the second lowest score on the team from the weekend, tied with sophomore William Holcomb and sitting right behind senior Jake McCrory’s -8 under par for the weekend.
Head coach Brandt Kieschnick talked about the result of the tournament and what to expect moving forward.
“The guys fought hard and we were really close to having a good finish,” Kieschnick said. “We were ready to compete this week and the guys were grinding each shot. We had three guys finish under par for the week so that was encouraging.”
One of the top performers for the Bearkats over the weekend was McCrory, who on Sunday shot a round of 66. His 66 is a personal best on the season to date. His lowest heading into the tournament was at 68 Oct. 9 at the Bayou City Collegiate Classic at Golfcrest Country Club in Pearland. His scores over the weekend were a 69-73-66 for a total of 208.
Coach Kieschnick talked about how McCrory’s performance helped the team over the weekend.
““Jake played absolutely flawless,” Kieschnick said. He only made two bogeys the whole week and he played as a professional. He looked like a player that knew he was going to play well and knew how to do it. That’s what we want and firing 66 the final round was huge for this team. I’ve seen this coming and he’s going to build on this great event.”
The Bearkats look to bounce back with their next tournament at Oakbourne CC Monday and Tuesday in Lafayette, Louisiana for the Louisiana Classics.