The BYU men’s golf team finished fifth place overall this week, but had one teammate finish first place in a neck-to-neck match up.
Sophomore Devon Purser shot a 64 (-8) in the last round to win the Pacific Invitational by one stroke.
“I hit the ball really well and hit a lot of greens this week,” Purser said. “Today on the back nine I just converted a lot of my putts and finished very strong coming in.”
It came right down to the wire, as Purser needed to birdie the last hole to win.
“I was a little nervous over it,” Purser said. “It was a pretty short putt, but when it went in, it felt awesome.”
The Cougars were in second place after day two, but the last day featured several lead changes. The top five teams all had the best scores of the tournament in the last round.
Junior Justin Keiley also had a good tournament, finishing 10th.
“I was satisfied with my performance,” Keiley said. “Anytime you finish in the top 10 you are happy.”
Senior Zac Blair, who struggled with consistency this tournament, was grateful for Purser and Keiley.
“Devon (Purser) carried us through the whole tournament,” Blair said. “It was sad the rest of us could not get anything going, except for Keiley.”
Blair finished strong, making four birdies in the final round.
Blair and the rest of the Cougars will have a few months to continue to improving and preparing for the second half of the season.
Play will resume in February, but until then the players will be looking for warmer weather. Blair plans to go to make some trips to Saint George, while Keiley is excited to go back to his home in Hawaii and golf there over the break.
