By Max Calderone | Sports Writer
The Baylor men’s golf team tied for fifth place at the Valspar Collegiate tournament in Palm City, Fla. this week.
The No. 9 ranked Bears ended the tournament a combined two-over par through the tournament’s three rounds, reaching as high as second place after day two. No. 1 Oklahoma State led the tournament wire-to-wire, five shots above runner-up No. 23 Florida State.
No. 2 Texas A&M and No. 3 Georgia Tech placed third and fourth respectively, and unranked Duke tied with Baylor 14 shots behind the lead.
Baylor had two individual top-10 finishers with senior Matthew Perine (-7) entering a four-way tie for third and junior Garrett May (-3) tying for seventh. This was Perine’s seventh career top-five finish, moving him into eighth on Baylor’s all-time list and May’s fifth consecutive top-10 finish.
Perine had the Bears lowest score of the tournament, posting a four-under 67 in back-to-back rounds on Sunday and Monday. May also scored a three-under 68 on Monday.
May is currently the highest ranked Baylor golfer at No. 13 in the nation, according to Golfstat‘s individual rankings. Perine sits at No. 34 and sophomore Cooper Dossey comes in at No. 49.
Junior Braden Bailey, who began the year inside the top-10, dropped to No. 68 overall in the latest polls. He was the Bears’ third-highest scorer at Valspar having tied for 55th at nine-over par.
Freshman Ryan Grider (+12) tied for 63rd and redshirt freshman Travis McInroe (+22) tied for 83rd in the tournament.
Head coach Mike McGraw said he wasn’t concerned with the team’s performance and that his guys would return to practice to prepare for the Aggie Invitational.
“This golf course was really tough today and we got pushed around quite a bit,” McGraw said. “We have a couple of weeks before our next event, so there is time to make necessary adjustments.”
Baylor will next compete at the Aggie Invitational from April 7-8 at Traditions Golf Course in Bryan.
