Golf team completes season

Golf team completes season

By Nate Owen
Stealing from work
ATLANTA
November 13, 1998

The fifth-ranked Georgia Tech golf team played their last match of the fall season this past weekend. At the Golf World/Palmetto Dunes Collegiate Invitational. The team shot a seven over par 295 Sunday to finish fifth at the challenging Arthur Hills Club in Palmetto Dunes, South Carolina.

Defending NCAA champion UNLV won the invitational title after finishing five under par as a team with a total of 859 strokes. This put the Runnin' Rebels three shots better than their closest competitor, the University of Georgia. The Jackets finished with a team total of 869 or 5 over par.

Oklahoma State's Edward Loar won the medallist honors in Hilton Head Island after firing a 67 in the final day to finish with a stellar 10 under par 206.

The "green" Jackets were led by Sophomore Bryce Molder and freshman Kris Mikkelsen who carded three round totals of 212, good enough for a tie for second. Molder, who entered the day leading the invitational, shot a disappointing 4-over 76 in the final round to end the tournament at 4 under par.

Mikkelsen had his best tournament of his young college career by carding two straight rounds of 70 to finish tied with the Molder, the reigning Jack Nicklaus Award winner.

Other Jackets posting scores at the Dunes were redshirt sophomore Wes Latimer, who ended in a tie for 35th. Latimer shot a 74 in the final day to the finish the invitational six over par. Junior Matt Kuchar carded a 76 to end the tournament 10 over par and senior Mike Pearson shot a 75 to finish 10 over par.

The Tech golfers are now off for the Christmas season. The break should give Matt Kuchar a chance to heal his ailing back.

Heading into the break, Tech is ranked fifth in the latest MasterCard Collegiate Golf top-25 ranking. The Jackets were in the top five of each of the three polls released during the fall season. Only Clemson, Houston, Oklahoma State, and Georgia are ranked higher than the Jackets.

Among the individual rankings, Molder was ranked number three among the top 25 individuals. That ranking was a slight drop as the junior was ranked number one in the two previous polls. Molder, who finished the fall season with a 71.53 stroke average, was the highest ranked player in the poll from the ACC.

Despite his back problems, Kuchar managed to enter the break with a ranking of number 14. Playing in only three of Tech's five tournaments, Kuchar posted a 74.11 strokes per round average.

The Jackets' next contest will be the weekend of February 11-13 at the Big Island Invitational in beautiful Kona, Hawaii.

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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