After three rounds at the Tiger Invitational on the par 72 at Grand National Lake Course in Opelika, Alabama, the K-State men’s golf team finished in a tie for fifth place at 17-over par 881.
In the final round Tuesday, K-State finished six-over par, shooting a 294 on the day to improve one spot from Monday’s sixth-place position.
The 17-over-par-overall performance was the Wildcats’ second-best score of the year, trailing only a 9-over par finish at the Desert Intercollegiate in February.
In the 16-team field, K-State finished five-strokes behind the next-best team (Southern Alabama), while finishing 42 strokes behind the winners and only team to finish below par for the tournament host-team Auburn.
“I think for where we are right now as a team it was a good finish for us,” K-State head coach Grant Robbins said to K-State Sports following Tuesday’s final round. “We were close to having a good round today, but we had a couple of double bogeys on the last hole and were not able to finish it off. We have really improved in several areas since the fall.”
Redshirt sophomore Matt Green secured his third-straight top-10 performance of the season, and his best finish since winning the Jack Nicklaus Invitational in September, with a four-under par 212 to tie for seventh place.
Also finishing in the top 20 for the Wildcats was sophomore Seth Smith. Smith fell five positions Tuesday with a two-over par 74 final round to finish in a tie for 16th place at even-par 216.
Robbins’ team will take a nearly two-week break before their next competition, which is the Duck Invitational in Eugene, Oregon, on March 23-24.
