By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
After winning back-to-back tournaments, No. 21 Baylor men’s golf battled through tough winds and cold weather to finish eighth out of 24 teams at The Prestige at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.
Day one of the tournament produced great weather and sunny skies, but on day two heavy winds blew across the green; as a result, play had to be continued on day three early in the morning. The wind wasn’t as bad as day two, but that final day impacted the Bears.
Baylor entered Wednesday in third place, but after weather delays, the team finished eighth with a 20-over 872. No. 15 Pepperdine University won the team title shooting 8-under 844, six-shots ahead of No. 3 Texas Tech University, who finished in second.
“It was a tough day for our guys today, but I was really proud of the way they came out this morning to finish yesterday’s round,” head coach Mike McGraw said. “It was cold and windy this morning. We will learn from this afternoon’s round, and we will be better for it.”
While the team as a whole did well, so did sophomore Drew Wrightson. He finished 2-under 211, a score that was good enough for a fifth place tie and tied his career-best finish. The sophomore has started the year with six rounds at par or better, which is equal to his total in all of last year.
Seniors Tyler Isenhart and Johnny Keefer both entered the third day at 1-under, but each had a tough day to cap off the tournament. Keefer finished 11-over 225, finishing tied for 54th place. He opened the third day with five bogeys on the front nine at Nos. 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9, but bounced back on his first three holes on the back nine, getting a birdie on each. Keefer tried to finish strong, but with the weather still a factor, he played his final six holes at 7-over par to close out the round.
Isenhart on the other hand finished tied for 34th with a 7-over 220. He opened the final round with five straight pars, made a double-bogey at Nos. 8 and 15, followed by two more bogeys to end the tournament.
Sophomore Zach Heffernan finished tied for 51st as he shot 10-over 223. Heffernan’s first two days started strong, but a 9-over 80 on the final day as a result of seven bogeys and a double bogey ended his last round of play.
No. 92 junior Trey Bosco ended the event tied for 64th place shooting 14-over 227. He shot the second best round of day three for the Bears at 5-over 76, but still wasn’t able to claw his way back into the top of the leaderboard.
Up next, the Bears will take a trip to Los Cabos, Mexico, to play in The Cabo Collegiate at the Twin Dolphin Club from March 5-7.
