Men’s Golf places third in Ram Masters Invitational
Men’s golf placed third at the Ram Masters Invitational in Boulder, Colorado on Sept. 17-18.
The 17-team invitational, hosted by Colorado State University, was played in three rounds over two days.
Tate Arends, sophomore led the Coyotes in ninth place with a 68 at 2-under-par.
Senior Tommy Vining moving up four points finished in a tie for the 15th place with a 1-over-par 71 and totaled 213 strokes.
Junior Matt Tolan earned a tie for 22nd position collecting 214 strokes over the three rounds. Tolan shot a 3-over-par 73 through the final tour of the course and matched Arends with two eagles at the event.
Michel maintains 47th place moving two positions up with 220 strokes after Tuesday’s match. Hicks made his Coyote debut tallying scores 75 -70-77 over the event’s three rounds, and going down 17 points to 58th position from Monday’s 41st tie.
Vining said leading the team has been a learning experience with a little more responsibility.
“The guys on the team are really motivated both in class and on the golf course so it’s been easy on my part,” Vining said. “I just try and work hard and share some experiences that I’ve had with the younger guys.”
“The team is off to a great start so far this season,” Vining said.
“The first event we learned a lot and we made some adjustments that paid off this week. We learned who we are as a team and that’s why we are very resilient,” he said. “Everyone has stepped up at different times which is big in team golf. We are excited to continue to build of each event and carry the momentum into the next event.”
Arends, who ended the tournament with 13 birdies, said he like his results from the Boulder tee-boxes.
“My favorite club is definitely my driver and it was very helpful this week, with the elevation it went farther than in Vermillion which helped me make lots of birdies,” Arends said.
“Coming into this year, I knew I had improved a lot over the summer but I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “I thought that I could compete and I’m happy that it has come this early, I wasn’t expecting it quite this early in the season so it’s been nice.”
CSU won the tournament with total 836 strokes at 4-under-par, Illinois saved second place totaling 850 strokes at 10 points to par. Dan Starzinski of Wyoming won individual medalist honors with scores of 67-66-66 for 199 strokes at 11-under-par.
The team plays their next tournament in Des Moines, Iowa at the Drake Zach Johnson Invitational Oct 1 and 2.
Molly Schiermeyer contributed to this story.
