By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Willamette University men's golf team put together an outstanding second round at the Linda Lowery Invitational on Tuesday, Feb. 27, shooting 307 for the third lowest score of the day to lift the Bearcats up from 16th place after one round into a tie for 11th place in the final standings. Sam Hinton (Jr., Seaside, OR/Seaside HS), who was tied with nine golfers for ninth place after Monday's first round, ended the tournament in sole possession of sixth place out of 87 golfers with a 36-hole score of 149.
Willamette, which registered a score of 333 in the first round, improved by 26 stokes in the second round. Only two teams scored lower than WU's 307 on Tuesday, as tournament host Concordia University (Texas) shot 292 and the University of Texas-Tyler carded 297. Texas Lutheran University at 309 was the only other team to finish the second round below the 310 mark.
In the final standings, Concordia earned the team championship with a score of 586 (294-292). UT-Tyler followed in second place, 11 strokes back at 597 (300-297). Southwestern University (Texas) was third at 615 (302-313) and Concordia University's "B" team was fourth at 617 (307-310). Fifth place went to Texas Lutheran at 624 (315-309).
Birmingham Southern College (Ala.) and University of Dallas (Texas) tied for sixth at 631. Birmingham Southern shot 308-323, while Dallas shot 317-314. University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) finished in a tie for eighth at 633 by shooting 317-316. UMBH was matched by Schreiner University (Texas), which shot 307-326.
McMurry University (Texas) was 10th with a score of 636 (311-325). Willamette shared 11th place with Webster University (Mo.) at 640, with the Bearcats carding 333-307 and Webster shooting two rounds of 320. A total of 18 teams competed in the tournament.
The individual champion was Tyler Uhlig from UT-Tyler. He shot 67-72 to win by one stroke at 3-under-par 139 on the par 71 course. Clayton King from Concordia took second at 140, with a 74 in the first round and a 66 in the second round. The 66 by King in the second round was the low round of the tournament, while Uhlig's 67 in the first round was second.
Logan Young of Concordia grabbed third place at 144 (72-72). Sam Hill from UT-Tyler was fourth at 147 (76-71). Jacob Gentry of Schreiner placed fifth at 148 (76-72). Hinton of Willamette held sixth place at 149 (75-74). Ryan McGinley of Concordia was sixth with a score of 150 (73-77).
Four golfers tied for eighth place at 151. They were Emilio Motalvo from University of Dallas (74-77), Cade Osgood from Southwestern (77-74), Andrew Errico of Howard Payne (79-72) and Ryan Schmidlin from the Concordia "B" team (75-76).
Hinton was one of three Bearcats who shot under 76 in the second round. His 74 was one stroke better than teammates Trent Jones (Jr., Kenmore, WAShorecrest HS) and Ben Graham (Fr., Renton, WALiberty HS), who each carded a 75. Jones tied for 42nd overall at 160, moving up from a tie for 65th after shooting 85 in the first round. Graham tied for 55th at 162, as he improved from a tie for 79th after earning an 87 on Monday.
Also competing for Willamette were Kenneth Sheldon (Jr., Ocean Park, WA/Ilwaco HS) and Spencer Hong (Sr., Bellevue, WA/Singapore American School). Sheldon carded an overall score of 169 (83-83). Hong shot 187 (93-94).
The Bearcats will be back in action on March 10 and March 11 at the Whitman Invitational in Richland, Washington. The tournament will be held at the Columbia Point golf Club.