Garrett leads golf to fourth at Sandestin

The golf team took fourth place out of 11 schools at the Sandestin Invitational on Sept. 26 and 27.

The tournament was hosted by the University of West Florida at the Raven Golf Club in Destin, Fla.

“I’ve seen gradual improvements throughout the fall, because a lot of it is just me getting used to the guys and them getting used to me because we have a lot of new faces and a lot of guys making their first trips,” Head Coach Jimmy Wilson said. “I see a good bit of potential that we need to get out there and we’re obviously not where we want to be or need to be but it is getting better and better everyday.”

The line-up for the tournament included junior Patrick Garrett, senior Jeff Rives, sophomores Gavin Harper and Brian Fox and freshman David Sullivan.

The tournament consisted of three rounds in which Garrett, recently named athlete of the week, led the team with scores of 75, 71 and 70. These scores left him at 3-over-par and tied for sixth place.

“We changed the roster around a lot for this tournament,” Garrett said. “Me and David Sullivan were the only two from the last tournament that played in this tournament, but that’s not to say it’s what made us better, but sometimes different people work better together.”

Rives was not far behind him with scores of 75, 71 and 73 which left him at 6-over-par and tied for 16th.

Bryan Fox was 10-over-par and tied for 31st while Harper and Sullivan were both 11-over-par and tied for 33rd.

The first day of the Sandestin Invitational concluded with the team in fifth, but after stepping it up on the last two rounds of day two, the team concluded in fourth place with a team score of 873 and 21-over-par. Lynn University took first place in the invitation with an overall team score of 859.

“I took a two-year break so I’m getting back into the swing of things, trying to get back into the game and working on being consistent,” Rives said.

The last tournament for the fall season will be the Aflac Invitational, hosted Oct. 3 and 4 by Columbus State University in Columbus, Ga.

“I want us to round up the fall season with a victory,” Rives said.

The team will start back up in February for the spring season and in between seasons they will still be practicing and participating in their workouts about twice a week.

“We’re going to take a look at different people and hopefully see some improvement in the guys who haven’t played in a couple weeks and start planning for the spring,” Wilson said.

Assistant Coach Kyle Collins and Mike Martino of the Department of Kinesiology put together a workout that is designed specifically for golf, making them stronger and more flexible, a key component in golf.

“This last tournament is not the end but the beginning,” Wilson said. “What we do in between now and February is going to determine how we do in the spring.”

Posted by CourtneyCoile on Sep 29 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.