The Long Beach State men’s golf team placed eighth in the 19-team field at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in Palm Desert on Sunday.
The 49ers carded a 301 as a team in the final round to finish the tournament with a three-round 25-over-par 902 score. LBSU finished four shots behind sixth-place finishers UC Santa Barbara and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Colorado State won the team competition with an 877 score, including a tournament-low 287 in the final round.
“It was my third event [as the coach] and we’ve improved in aspects of tournament golf,” head coach Bill Poutre said. “We were much more mature.”
Individually, junior Michael Drake led LBSU and finished in a five-way tie for 14th. Drake fired an opening-round 72 to stay even at par and carded a 3-over 75 in each of the final two rounds to finish with a 222 total.
“While [Drake] didn’t strike the ball well by his standards, he managed the game well,” Poutre said. “He played like a veteran.”
Denver’s Daniel Wax won the individual title by shooting 4-under 68 in the final round and finished the event with a 213 total.
Junior transfer Steve Gibson (79-73-74) moved up six spots in the standings to finish tied for 26th. Sophomore Ricky Montanez (t-30th) shot 5-over 77 in the final round to drop 10 spots in the standings. Freshmen Kevin Lim and Kevin Roy tied for 61st to round out the scoring for LBSU.
“We made some critical errors off the tee and didn’t protect par,” Poutre said, alluding to the 35 mph winds. “So all of our errors were amplified.”
The 49ers will take two weeks off before playing in the Del Walker Intercollegiate at the Virginia Country Club in Long Beach. The two-day tournament tees off Thursday, Oct. 16.