Idaho men’s golf is now sitting in 10th In the Southern Dunes Invitational in Maricopa Arizona.
The team started out in ninth after a score of 306 after the first round. However, the team struggled in the second round and shot 312, moving them down to 10th. The Vandals entered the second day of the tournament at 42-over.
Junior Klaus Ganter shot 2-over 74 in the first round for Idaho’s best score of the day. Ganter finished both rounds at 8-over (74-78=152). Senior Hayden Ritter (75-78=153) and junior Enrique Martin (77-77=154) both were right on Ganter’s tail.
The second day of the tournament the Vandals shot 305 in the final-round for the best single -round team score of the entire tournament. This did not help Idaho climb back up the leaderboard. Idaho finished the tournament with 923 (306-312-305).
Ganter led the pack at 11-over (74-78-75=227). This helped him finish for a tie for 44th individually.
Head coach David Nuhn said in a news release the team did not play as expected.
“I think our results had to do with missing greens and, more importantly, where we missed,” Nuhn said. “Sometimes we may have been too aggressive and we weren’t as strategic as we needed to be. The greens were as firm as we’ve seen, so we needed to be diligent about where we were laying up and where we were landing it. Our guys need to be more aware of what the golf course is giving them. Hopefully these experiences give us that wakeup call.”
Martin continued to be a front runner for the Vandals. He finished in a tie for 52nd and was two strokes behind Ganter at 13-over (77-77-75=229). Martin’s 77 was the best score for Idaho in the second-round. He also matched Ganter for low honors with a 75 in the final round.
The Vandals end their fall schedule at the Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational Oct. 29 throuhg Oct. 31 in Princeville, Hawaii.
Marisa Lloyd can be reached at [email protected]