COLUMBIA, Mo.
- Junior Dustin Korte shot six-under par to finish second overall and
Austin Peay State University men's golf team finished third at the COG Mizzou
Intercollegiate, Tuesday, at The Club at Old Hawthorne.
Take away Korte's double-bogey on No. 13 and
the Metropolis native would've been in a two-man playoff alongside eventual
winner Ryan Zech, of host Missouri. Korte did manage to somewhat stem the tide
with a three birdies over his final four holes to finish the day with a
respectable one-under par 71. He finished two shots back from Zech and one shot
in front of third place Nate McCoy, of Iowa State.
The Govs continued their string of strong
finishes, landing third with a three-round 880, trailing tourney champ Missouri
by 24 shots. Second-place Iowa State ended four shots ahead of Austin Peay with
an 876, just close enough for the Govs to see how it slipped away.
"We continued to play good golf," head coach Kirk Kayden said. "The only problem is we missed that fourth score in each round
that would push us over the top. We've seemed to find three good scores in each
round, but we have to be stronger across the board. They guys want to win one
this spring, at least I can see that."
Korte's six-under par, three-round (70-69-71)
211 is his season's best 54-hole score, while the second-place finish also is a
season best. Sophomore Trey Tarpley joined Korte in the Top 20, finishing tied
for 11th with a three round (78-70-72) 220 which was a nice rebound
from last week's 228.
Sophomore Anthony Bradley seemed to lose his
way after an opening-round 69, shooting 77-80 to finish tied for 28th
with a three-round 226. In fact, it was the first time since September Bradley
has not been one of the Govs top two finishers.
Fellow sophomore Marco Iten attempted to
overcome a rough start, but his final-round 73 was not enough to offset his
77-79 start, leaving him tied for 39th overall. Freshman Tucker Wallace, who was the Govs' scoring leader last week, finished tied for 62nd
with a (81-76-78) 235. Wallace's card had the day's worst blemish, a quad-bogey
on No. 14 - a hole which he had previously played one-under par in the earlier
two rounds.
"The course played a lot tougher today than
it did in the first two rounds," Kayden said. "We had a couple of hiccups that
came back to hurt us pretty good and really felt like we left some shots on the
course. That said, we beat some pretty good teams along the way and have to
keep it up."
IUPUI and Northern Illinois finished tied for
fourth at 887, followed by Purdue - which entered the week ranked No. 47 by
GolfWeek - at 894. Oral Roberts (900), Nebraska (907), Binghamton (908),
Belmont (916), Wisconsin (917), Cincinnati (925), Northern Iowa (927),
Crieghton (935) and South Dakota (935) made up the rest of the field.
-AP-
