Nov. 2, 2010
2010 Royal Oaks Intercollegiate
DALLAS — The final round of the 2010 Royal Oaks Intercollegiate was cancelled Tuesday due to persistent heavy rains and lightning in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
As such, the results from Monday’s first two rounds, University of New Mexico men’s golfer Tom Carlson closed out the fall season with his third career Top-10 finish. Carlson carded a 4-under-par 70-68-138 Monday, good for 10th place. Carlson sunk five birdies during his second round and finished at 3-under, ripping off three over five holes midway through the round.
Carlson picks up his second Top-10 finish of the fall season, having tied for ninth at Golfweek’s Conference Challenge August 19-21, the Lobos’ first event of the season. The senior finished the GCC with a 4-under 71-71-70=212. He finished two strokes out of the top five and six out of first place.
Carlson also finished tied for ninth at the 2009 Arizona Intercollegiate, his first and only other Top-10 finish as a Lobo, shooting an even-par 213 over three rounds that included a 4-under 67 in the final round.
Carlson wound up serving as New Mexico’s current lone bright spot at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate, as no other member of the Lobos’ squad made the top 35. Sam Chavez posted the next-best score for New Mexico with a 4-over 71-75-146, tying for 38th.
New Mexico senior Travis Ross, currently ranked No. 54 among collegiate golfers by Golfstat, tied teammate Ryan Gay for 52nd at 7-over with a 75-74=149. Gay, a sophomore, got to 7-over with a 74-75=149.
Catlin, also a sophomore, tied for 56th with an 8-over 75-75=150, while fellow Lobo Shane McDonald tied for 70th with a 14-over 78-78=156.
New Mexico finished its final event of the fall season in 11th place with a 14-over 290-292=582. The Lobos are one of seven teams in the field ranked in the top 50 nationally, entering the event at No. 49.
“Tom led the way with a very good day of golf on Monday,” Lobos’ coach Glen Millican said. “He did a great job of keeping the ball in play off the tee and shooting two good scores to finish the fall season.
“Overall, we’re not happy with the team’s finish. We all know we’re better than the scores we shot in Dallas. We actually had a good round going both Monday morning and afternoon, but had trouble finishing the rounds.”
Millican feels his squad might have moved up the leaderboard had the weather not washed out Tuesday’s final round.
“The guys started today’s final round well before the weather delay,” he said. “It’s unfortunate not to have a chance to move up the leaderboard today, but it was good to see our guys start well on the holes we did play.”
The Lobos return to action Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2011 at the Arizona Intercollegiate in Tucson, Ariz.