After the first round, junior Enrique Marin sat comfortably tied for third out of 130 golfers. The junior had fired a 4-under 68 in the first, but a slump-round in the third culminated in a 1-under, 25th-place overall tie for Marin over the weekend at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in Palm Desert, California.
In a 23-team field featuring three of the country’s top-25 (Texas Tech – Ninth, California – 19th, UCLA – 21st), the Idaho men’s golf team managed a tie for 19th with an aggregate 35-over 899, just two strokes back of in-state competitor, Boise State.
Marin’s 68 matches his best round of his career, and the third below-70 round of his career.
His first round featured a slew of birdies — three on the front and three on the back, including a circle on the handicap-1, 595-yard par-5 ninth.
Yet again, Marin’s company all nearly matched each other. Each shot a 5-over 77, except for freshman Cole Chrisman, who finished the first with a 78 on the 7,322, par-72, hill-surrounded links.
In round two, the Vandals whacked themselves to their best overall round out of their last 11, a 9-over 297. Marin knocked in four birdies, but was unable to card an under-70 score. However, he managed to stay in the top-10 with a 1-under 71 on the day.
Junior Klaus Ganter carded his best round of this still-young spring season, a 1-over 73 in the second. Ganter’s play on the day was relatively fixed: he birdied two par-5s, two of the longest holes on the course, but bogied three near-400-yard par-4s.
Chrisman also recorded his best round of the spring in the second and his second-best of his career thus far. With almost all pars, save a couple bogies and one birdie, Chrisman found himself with a 2-over 74.
After a bogey on the first, Marin strung together 12 consecutive pars during the third round. However, a triple-bogey on the final hole of the tournament proved inimical to his tournament up to that point. Marin finished the day with a 4-over 76, dropping him down the leaderboards to 25th.
Freshman Adam Veenstra was the Vandals’ bright spot during their rocky round three. Veenstra fired his best round since the Itani Quality Homes Collegiate in mid-September, finishing with five birdies and five bogies for an even par-72.
Nineteenth-ranked California reigned supreme throughout the tournament’s entirety. The Golden Bears finished with all four of their accepted scorers in the top-15 overall and all five competitors under-par. Only one of their five golfers carded an over-par round the entire tournament.
Cal’s Collin Morikawa, Sebastian Crampton and Texas Tech’s Fredrick Nilehn tied for medalist honors. Each turned in aggregate 14-under 202s.
Idaho will break from competition until March 10, then will head to Bandon, Oregon, for the Bandon Dunes Championship hosted by Gonzaga University.
Colton Clark can be reached at [email protected]