By DREW PACKHAM
It was a strong showing for junior Andy Miller Tuesday, as he shot a final-round 69 to finish in third place at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate Golf Tournament in Austin, Texas. His 1-under-215 helped the Cougar golfers to a 4th-place finish against several of the country’s top teams.
Head coach Bruce Brockbank was pleased with the team’s overall performance.
“Andy’s 3rd-place finish is excellent with this field of golfers,” Brockbank said in a news release. “The guys played really hard today. We were neck-to-neck with some of the best teams in the country.”
The 11th-ranked Cougars finished with a team total of 893 in the three-round meet. Georgia, ranked third nationally, won the meet with a total of 876. Fifth-ranked UNLV was second with 885 and No. 6 Houston finished with 887. The Cougars beat out No. 2 Oklahoma State, which ended in fifth place with 897.
“This is the toughest course we’ve seen all year,” Brockbank said. “We had some tough breaks out there but still hung in and battled.”
Miller, who is ranked 38th on the latest MasterCard/Golfstat Collegiate Golf Rankings, shot the 3-under-69 on Tuesday, but it wasn’t enough to pull out the victory. Georgia’s Ryuji Imada, ranked 13th in the nation, fired a 213 and birdied his final two holes to pull out the victory. Texas A&M’s Ryan Palmer was second with a 214 and Miller was one stroke behind him. The nation’s top golfer, David Gossett of Texas, was fourth with a 216.
“All in all we played well,” Brockbank said. “We need to be a little more mentally tough and we’ll be in great shape.”
Several other Cougars played well to help BYU to its strong finish. Junior Jose Garrido finished 19th with a 225, sophomore Scott Miller was 21st with a 226 and sophomore Billy Harvey shot a 228, good enough for 27th.
The Cougars will be in action again April 2-3 in the Carpet Classic Tournament in Dalton, Ga.
