March 17, 2012

Border Olympics Final Results

LAREDO, Texas - Kansas men's golf recovered from a difficult first day at the Border Olympics to post its best round of the tournament by 12 strokes Saturday (300, 12-over par), concluding the event with a 54-hole total of 925 (+61) to finish in 15^th place.

Junior Chris Gilbert led the charge on the final day with an even-par 72 to end the tournament tied for 37th with a three-round aggregate of 227 (+11). Gilbert's scorecard featured four birdies on the day, including two on par 5s.

"Hopefully he can take the positives from this round and have a much better mindset going into next week," said Kansas head coach Kit Grove. "He missed quite a few very makeable putts, so 72 was about as high as he could have shot today."

Junior Alex Gutesha earned the top spot for KU at the event with a 226 (+10) to tie for 34th. Gutesha's tournament included an eagle on the par-4, 438-yard sixth hole in the first round of the event.

"He hit a wedge in there downwind from 138 yards," said Grove, who was standing on the seventh tee box at the time and witnessed the shot go in. "It landed about two or three feet past the hole, and he spun it right back in for a two. After he started with a double bogey and a bogey, that kind of calmed him down a little bit."

Gutesha proved to be the most consistent Jayhawk for the week, posting the best score for each of the first two rounds - 74 and 77, respectively - and following it up with a 75 (+3) on the final day. However, Kansas struggled as a team and needed a strong performance over the final 18 holes to pass Stephen F. Austin and avoid a last-place showing.

"As a whole, we played a little better today, but we still made a lot of mistakes that we made yesterday," said Grove. "We made five bogeys on the par 5s, which you just can't do. You have to kill the par 5s when it's good weather, but in bad weather, you especially have to take care of business. We had 21 scores of six or worse on the par 5s this week. Our execution was just horrible. It's just a frustrating week all the way around, but we'll regroup and get a couple days of practice in Phoenix before the next event. It's a completely different golf course, so hopefully we can get moving back in the right direction for the rest of the spring."

Kansas will continue its spring break trip by heading to the Desert Shootout, which will be held March 22-24 in Goodyear, Ariz.

Team Results
1. Lamar - 293-289-288 - 870
2. Baylor - 292-301-282 - 875
3. Houston - 290-295-303 - 888
4. Iowa State - 296-305-292 - 893
T5. Louisiana Tech - 301-307-292 - 900
T5. Louisiana-Lafayette - 302-303-295 - 900 
15. KANSAS - 312-313-300 - 925

Individual Results
1. M.J. Daffue (Lamar) - 71-70-70 - 211
2. Philipp Fendt (Louisiana) - 71-73-69 - 213
T3. M. Bjerch-Andresen (Baylor) - 72-70-74 - 216
T3. Xavier Feyaerts (Lamar) - 76-71-69 - 216
T5. Three golfers tied at 217

Kansas Results
T34. Alex Gutesha - 74-77-75 - 226
T37. Chris Gilbert - 76-79-72 - 227
T77. Paul Harris - 83-79-76 - 238
79. Dylan McClure - 84-78-77 - 239
T80. Doug Quinones - 79-84-77 - 240