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INDEPENDENCE, Minn. – Despite the weather conditions continuing to be difficult, and a change in wind direction, The University of New Mexico men’s golf team has notched their first top-5 performance of the 2016-17 season, finishing at 22-over 874 (291-290-293) and in sole possession of fifth place, two shots clear of sixth place Arkansas.
UNM head coach Glen Millican began simply, highlighting the teams composure in spite of the lackluster conditions saying,
“Our guys did a very good job of hanging in there and playing a solid final round.”
Redshirt-Junior Andre Garcia lead the Lobos with his mark of 3-over 216 (71-72-73). Garcia eventually ended the day in a five-way tie for 11th. His rounds were marks of consistency, as evidenced by the 16 pars Garcia notched during today’s play.
Garcia tallied 42 total pars, leading the tournament field. Garcia was inside the top-10 in scoring average for par-3’s, par-4’s and par-5’s, carrying averages of 3.17, 4.06 and 4.89 respectively.
Another Andrej found himself inside the top-25, Andrej Bevins closed out his 2016 Gopher Invitational performance at 6-over 219 (72-74-73) and finished inside a quartet for 23rd overall. Bevins’ day began with two opening nine birdies, making the turn at even-par for the day. A pair of bogeys marked the only blemishes on his homeward nine.
For the tournament, Bevins had eight birdies, good for sixth most in the field. However, his statistical highlights were led by his par-4 scoring average, at 4.06 Bevins’ average was tied for the fourth lowest in the field.
This season’s T23 performance marked significant improvement for Bevins, who finished 72nd at last year’s event. The biggest difference was his scoring consistency this year (72-74-73) as opposed to 2015 (74-81-82).
Gustavo Morantes, who finished T55 at last year’s Gopher Invitational, landed in a two-way tie for 35th this time around. Morantes closed out his 2016 performance with a birdie on the par-5 18th which allowed him to move out of a three-way tie for 47th.
Morantes’ statistical performance was led by his par-3 scoring performance over the weekend. Through 54 holes of competition Morantes carried an even-par scoring average, good for third lowest in the field.
This year’s season opener concluded with every traveling Lobo landing inside the top-50, both Lobo sophomores, Sean Carlon (82-73-72) and Samuel Kim (72-78-77), finished tied for 49th at 14-over 227.
Kim uncharacteristically struggled on par-5’s for the week, carrying a scoring average of 5.33, however that blemish was balanced by Kim’s birdie performance. For the Gopher, Kim had nine total birdies which landed him with the fourth highest individual total in the field.
The largest move made by a Lobo was made via the play of Sean Carlon, who jumped up 17 spots today thanks to the day’s round. Carlon tallied the most birdies of a Lobo on the day with three, and carried scoring averages of 3.25, 4.33 and 5.00 for the tournament.
This season’s fifth place finish came about thanks to the Lobos shaving 21 strokes off of last year’s total. Which was helped along by the team’s par-3 (3.18) and par-4 (4.21) scoring averages, both of which were inside the field’s top-5.
UNM had 174 total pars, three off the most in the field and also tallied 33 birdies which was the sixth most in the field.
“Always nice to move up on the last day and we played well up here to start the season.” Millican concluded.
Next up for the UNM squad is their annual home tournament, the William H. Tucker Invitational Sep. 23-24.
The Lobos are four-time consecutive team champions, and are looking to break out of the tie they currently find themselves in with the University of Houston for most consecutive team titles at the Tucker (4), a record that has now stood for 49 years.
The Lobos won the team title by 19 strokes in 2015, and were led by the performance of Andrej Bevins, who was the individual medalist.
Lobos Capture First Top-5 Of 16-17 Season
