Golf team finishes difficult season
The team missed postseason play by one spot at championships.
Published April 27, 2007
A few strokes were all that separated the Missouri golf team from regional play.
The team's season ended on Tuesday after the Tigers finished seventh at the Big 12 Championships in Hutchinson, Kan., one place away from making it to the postseason.
"We were one or two strokes away," Coach Mark Leroux said. "We kept coming up one or two shots short."
The team was tied for fifth place after the first day of play, but it finished the tournament in seventh place, just missing the last playoff spot. Missouri's main competitors for the last spot at regionals were Iowa State and Oklahoma. MU beat Iowa State, but Oklahoma took the last spot from the Tigers by eight strokes. If each golfer had been able to shave two strokes off their scores, MU would have advanced.
Senior John Kelly said the team just failed to execute.
"Going into the tournament we knew what we had to do," Kelly said. "It was a good test of golf. The course played tough. It has so much protection with the wind and the difficulty of the greens, and the heather is just off the fairways. At the end, I just had a few too many shots."
Regional competitors are determined by tallying the results of all the golf competitions of the year as well as the championship. The Tigers struggled this year despite the talent on the team, Kelly said.
"That was a consistent pattern the whole year," Kelly said. "We just kept falling. We could never start the engine. We always had something to build on, but we never had momentum. We just stalled out all season. We were so close. That's the most frustrating thing about it."
Sophomore Peter Malnati said he wished he had performed better this year as an individual.
"I never put anything together," he said. "I really thought I would this year, and I thought I could help the team get something started too. It just never really worked out for myself or the team."
This is Kelly's last season on the team, but he said he sees a bright future for the rest of his teammates.
"It hurts that we didn't live up to our expectations, but I think the team is in good hands here for the next few years with these guys," Kelly said. "I'm expecting some good things from these guys."
MU had advanced to regionals in both of its past two seasons, and the team is now focused on next season. Five new golfers will replace the four graduating seniors.
"It will be a whole lot more competitive and less complacent than it was this year," Leroux said of adding new players to the team. "It should improve everyone, including the returning players."
But two seniors, Kelly and Shawn Jasper, will be missed in their roles as team leaders.
"John made me better because he taught me a lot," Malnati said. "He led by example. He would always try to teach me stuff, and he would really help me out, so I'm definitely going to miss Johnny."
Kelly said he had a bittersweet senior season as the Tigers missed a shot at the postseason, but he did find success on the course.
"Senior season was fun, quick," he said. "I hate using the word disappointing, but it was. That was just a part of it. I learned a lot about myself. I had a great time. At times I played some good golf, and at times I played some bad golf. I got a lot better in my four years here."
