Tiger golf takes third in Intercollegiate

Junior William Harrold was the only Tiger to finish under par.

By Brian Haenchen

Published April 16, 2010

The Missouri men's golf team took third place with a final score of 291 at the Columbia Orthothopaedic Group Mizzou Intercollegiate on Tuesday, its final tournament of the regular season.

The Tigers entered the final round at The Club at Old Hawthorne at even par, five shots behind Kansas State. But they were unable to close the gap, finishing the round at 3-over par, 10 strokes behind first place Nebraska.

Harrold, the only upperclassman on the team, pulled to within one shot of the overall leader late in the round. A bogie on 15 and three straight pars to close out the round put Harrold at 2-under for the tournament, three shots behind the leader.

"I played well," Harrold said. "It was frustrating, (I) could have gotten a lot better than that on the back nine. I missed a couple little putts, but overall I shot well. I was pleased."

After running his score up to 4-over par through six holes, sophomore Chris Johnson, who entered the day at even par, scored an eagle followed by two birdies on holes 8-10 to finish the round at even par.

"I fought it back," Johnson said. "I was 4-over through seven and ended up shooting even. It was an up-and-down day. It was a roller coaster. For the most part, (I'm) not too disappointed. Just a little disappointed that we didn't play too well as a team."

Freshmen Stuart Ballingall and Michael Garden were the other two players to qualify for Missouri scoring. Ballingall, coming off a first place finish at the Arkansas-Little Rock First Tee Classic, finished the tournament in 12th place overall at 1-over par. It was the first time in five tournaments Ballingall finished out of the top 10.

"Garden was over," coach Mark Leroux said. "He kept plotting along and kept (his score) right where he needed to at 4-over to be our high counting score."

Redshirt freshman Jace Long triple-boogied hole 15 en route to carding an 8-over par in the final round. Long finished in a tie for 31st place at 9-over par.

Missouri is confident heading into the Big 12 Championship starting April 23.

"(We are) feeling good, actually," Harrold said. "We have been playing really well this year. We are a pretty hot golf team and hopefully we will do well in the Big 12."

Johnson and his teammates are using the Intercollegiate as motivation and are focused on the postseason.

"We're all ready, especially after this tournament," Johnson said. "We're a little disappointed in the end result. We all want to make it to regionals, and we know that we have to play well, so we will just get some practice in and hopefully play up to our ability."

The Big 12 Championship is at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas. The 72-hole tournament runs from April 23 to April 25. Missouri will tee off at 8:50 a.m. on day one with Texas Tech and Baylor.