The Kansas State men’s golf team struggled in Sugar Grove, Illinois, finishing 11th place at the Rich Harvest Farms Intercollegiate.
“It was a disappointing finish,” head coach Grant Robbins said to K-State Athletics. “With the way the course was set up and the conditions the way they were, you had to go low, and we weren’t able to get anything going.”
The Wildcats started off slow in the first-round, standing in eighth place at Saturday’s conclusion, despite junior Tim Tillmanns’ tie for sixth place and the fifth top-10 placing of his career.
K-State improved in round-two by 2 strokes with an even-par 288, putting the Wildcats out of the top-five by only 6 strokes. However, the Wildcats fell two spots in the standings tied for 10th place.
Tillmanns continued playing well with a 1-under par 71 round to remain tied for third place, and senior Will Hopkins jumped 25 spots to tie for 24th place at 1-over par 145. Cooper Schultz only improved two strokes, while Nicklaus Mason (74) and Luke O’Neill (73) duplicated their round-one totals.
Tillmanns shot a 72 round-three to finish with a 5-under par 211 performance, 1 stroke shy of copying his second-round totals.
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Will Hopkins placed 6 strokes behind Tillmanns to tie in 31st place with a 217 shot total but fell seven spots on the leaderboard.
Schultz and sophomore Ethan Miller played well in round-three and tied for 49th place at 4-over par 220, but Schultz’s display was disappointing following his first top-10 career finish in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Miller was a bright spot for the Wildcats, but placed ninth as an individual, not contributing to K-State’s team status.
O’Neill tied for 58th place, and Mason tied for 55th place, one stroke shy of each other. O’Neill tacked on four more strokes from his round-two showing while Mason shot another 74.
“We made quite a few birdies, but overall, we just hit too many poor shots and made some big numbers that really cost us,” Robbins said.
The Purdue Boilermakers won the par 72, 7,281-yard Rich Harvest Farms, with a total of 21-under par 243 to come back and beat former Big 12 foe — the Missouri Tigers — by one stroke.
“It’s a long season and there are going to be ups and downs,” Robbins said. “We just have to learn from it and get ready for the Big 12 Match Play next week.”
K-State will compete at the Big 12 Match Play Championship in Hockley, Texas, Oct. 11-13 with hopes to ignite another hot streak.
