By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Baylor men’s golf carded its best round of the week Thursday but closed the season in a tie for 14th in the Big 12 Championship with a 69-over 1,189 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
The Bears were led by junior Jonas Appel, who finished in a tie for 29th with an 11-over 291. Oklahoma State ran away with the competition, leading the field with a 2-under 1,118 — nine shots ahead of Arizona State.
“This was obviously not the performance we were looking for this week,” head coach Mike McGraw said. “I love that we got to compete on this fantastic golf course, but it will really test you and expose your flaws, and we ran into some of that this week.”
Sophomore Davis Ovard put his name in the history books, working into a tie for the 10th-best Big 12 Championship round in program history. Ovard finished a strong week with a 3-over 73 to claim a tie for 34th. Ovard and Appel had flip-flop days, with Appel thriving on the back half and hitting a roadblock on the front nine while Ovard battled bogeys on Nos. 15 and 18 before bouncing back.
While No. 9 proved to be a difficult hole all week, with a stroke average of 4.33. Appel claimed two of only 32 birdies on the hole in the 319 rounds played.
Junior Sam Dossey made his Big 12 Championship debut, shooting a 3-over 73 on Thursday. He traded an opening hole bogey with a birdie on No. 15, but finished his day with bogeys on Nos. 8 and 9. Freshman Vincent Stjernfeldt finished the event with back-to-back 5-over 75’s.
“I thought we saw some good things from some guys, just not enough to compete,” McGraw said. “We know we have some work to do this offseason to put ourselves back in the regional conversation for next year, and I know we’ll do that.”
Senior Zach Heffernan finished his Baylor career with a 13-over 83 on the final day of the event to finish tied for 68th.
With the bottom-three finish, Thursday marked the end of the season for the Bears, who will pick up action again in September.
