The BYU men’s golf team battled against cold weather, challenging course and ranked teams to finish sixth place in the Jack Nicklaus Invitational.
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[/media-credit]The Cougars were in second place after day one, but could not quite keep up the momentum through day two.
“Our biggest problem is finishing,” Junior golfer Justin Keiley said. “We went backwards the last day when we were in position to be in the top three.”
Keiley led the team finishing tied for 14th, which was his best finish so far this season, but still not satisfying enough.
“The last round was disappointing,” Keiley said. “I cost myself a top 10 finish.”
Senior golfer Zac Blair finished tied for 23rd and said it was frustrating because they were right there.
“There’s nothing we can do about it now except to keep working hard and play better next week,” Blair said.
The other BYU golfers were Adam Tebbs, coming in at 28th, as well as Devon Purser and Mike Jurca who tied for 39th.
Due to cold weather and some early morning frost, the tournament was cut down to 36 holes from the regular 54 holes.
“The cold was especially tough mentally,” Blair said.
Not only was it cold, but the course was a course the pro golfers use.
“It was the toughest course I have ever played on,” Keiley said.
Despite the tough course, both Keiley and Blair feel this was a great learning experience from which the team will benefit from in the future.
The Cougars may also benefit knowing they finished ahead of two highly ranked opponents, one being No. 8 Arkansas.
In their next tournament Oct. 29-31, the team looks to apply what they learned and Keiley summed that up very simply:
“Basically, we need to be smarter.”
