Men's golf team seeks to prove itself
Published Sept. 15, 2006
Despite a strong start at the U.S. Amateur Championships for senior John Kelly, his play was unable to carry over to the first match of the MU season, as the men's golf team finished 11th out of a 12-team pool last weekend.
Kelly, the U.S. Amateur runner-up, was MU's top finisher, tying for 19th out of 60 golfers in the Rich Harvest Farms Intercollegiate Tournament in Sugar Grove, Ill. Kelly finished with scores of 78-77-75, for an individual total of 230 for the weekend. Missouri's team score totaled 942 over the weekend, with a breakdown of 310-318-314. But as sophomore Peter Malnati pointed out, team golf is different than the individual golf each team member played this summer.
"It's a whole different mindset, and I just have to get adjusted to that again," Malnati said. "You've got four other guys you're playing for, and it's a little tougher."
The team performed well for the most part on the front nine, but the back nine was the challenge.
The long 17th hole, with its water obstruction, proved to be the most difficult for MU. Both senior Trent Twaddle and Malnati found the water on that hole, each recording a nine on the par-4 hole.
"If they'd have made par, we would have saved 10 shots," coach Mark Leroux said. "We would have shot 302. That would have put us in third place after the first round."
Leroux said he was happy with Twaddle's performance with the exception of the 17th hole.
"Even if he gets a bogey there, he's four less than that, he shoots 75-78-78, and he's one shot off of Kelly," Leroux said. "So he played well except for that 17th."
The 18th hole caused trouble for redshirt freshman Bud Reynolds, who made triple bogey, but Leroux has confidence in his young golfer.
"Bud Reynolds is going to be one of our top golfers," Leroux said. "It may not be his redshirt freshman year, but by the time he's a sophomore or junior, he'll be leading this team."
Sophomores Ryne Fisher and Malnati said they are looking forward to the opportunity to start over in the Wolverine Intercollegiate Tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich., this weekend.
"I know it's a good field, but we feel like we're just as good as anyone that's going to be there," Fisher said.
Malnati said the difficult start might not be the worst thing for the team.
"This start could be good for us because we sort of took for granted that we were good," Malnati said. "We were going to go show people we're good, and we didn't. Hopefully we're going to make a splash and get back on the radar screen where we need to be."
