John Burns Intercollegiate
Final Team Top 5: 1. California (282-291-279=852, -12). 2. New Mexico (295-283-281=859, -5). 3. UNLV (287-291-290=868, +4). 4. Texas A&M (288-293-291=872, +8). 5. Virginia291-301-285=877, +13)
Individual Top 7: Shotaro Ban, California (67-72-69=208, -8). 2. John Oda, UNLV (69-70-71=210, -6). T3. Kurt Kitayama, UNLV (70-71-71=212, -4). T3. Adria Arnaus, Texas A&M (70-72-70=212, -4). T3 K.K. Limbhasut, California (72-73-67=212, -4). ). 7. Andrej Bevins, New Mexico (70-68-75=213, -3).
Other Lobo Scorers
12. Sam Saunders 76-73-68=217, +1
T13. Victor Perez 75-70-73=218, +2
16. Gustavo Morantes 75-72-72=219, +3
17. Gavin Green 75-77-68=220, +4
T36 Sean Romero* 74-77-73=224, +8
* — Denotes competing as an individual.
In Lihue, Hawaii, the 27th-ranked University of New Mexico men’s golf team separated itself from the teams below it on Friday; it just couldn’t catch the one team in front of it.
The real Gavin Green returned with a 4-under 68, matched by fellow senior Sam Saunders in the final round, and the Lobos came away with an impressive second-place finish at the John Burns Intercollegiate.
UNM shot a final-round 282 to finish the 16-team event (not including Hawaii’s “B” team) at 5-under 859 (295-283-281), eight strokes behind the winner and 25th-ranked California. The Bears shot a 9-under 279 for a three-day total 852.
Mountain West rival and No. 24 UNLV finished third at 5-over 869 (287-291-291), followed by Texas A&M (288-293-291=872, +8) and No. 19 Virginia (291-301-285=877, +13).
The Lobos were the only team in the field to have all five team members finish in the top 20 among the 92 competitors.
“Top 17, actually,” coach Glen Millican said. “This was definitely our best showing since we won the Tucker (Intercollegiate in September at the UNM Championship Course). The conditions out here made is so like it was three different golf courses, that that was a good experience as well.
“We spotted Cal 13 strokes in the first round, and that’s too many to give a team like that and expect to come back on them.”
Andrej Bevins was the only UNM golfer that could say he didn’t finish the way he wanted but that was due to the fact that he had the most on the line. The sophomore, who was tied for the lead after 36 holes, shot a 3-over-75 in the final round to finish in seventh place at 3-under 213.
“It was a new position for Andrej, and I told him no matter what happened today, he was going to a better golfer. He hit a rough patch in the middle of the round but he didn’t let things get away from him and now he has that experience under his belt. There’s no substitute for that.”
Green birdied his first three holes and finished with six birdies and two bogeys. He improved 28 spots from his second round and finished tied for 17th at 4-over.
“You could just see by the way Gavin came out today that he was going to have a good round,” Millican said. “He was not happy with the way he played and came out ready to play.
An eagle on Saunders’ seventh hole, the par-5 ninth, kick-started his round that included three birdies and a bogey. He moved up 15 spots from a tie for 27th to 12th outright at 1 over.
Senior Victor Perez shot a 1-over 73 on Friday and finished at 2-over 218 for a tie for 13th – his second consecutive 13th-place finish. True freshman Gustavo Morantes shot his second consecutive even-par 72 and finished at 3-over 219 for 16th place.
“Victor has put back-to-back good tournaments together,” Millican said. “Sam is starting to round back into form after missing some time over the break. Gustavo had a very good tournament for his second event.
Senior Sean Romero, competing as an individual, shot a 74-77-72=223 for a 7-over tie for 34th place.
The Lobos return to action on Feb. 28 when the team travels to Tucson, Ariz., for the National Invitational Tournament, and Millican said he’s glad the team has a chance to compete again so quickly after a strong showing.
“Absolutely, it’s great to go play again right away,” Millican said. “This was the first time where I felt all our guys showed what they can do, instead of us just telling them what they’re capable of. If we keep playing like this, we’re going to put ourselves in position to contend for a lot of events.”