Playing in its fourth tournament of the season, the UCSD golf team participated in the Cal State San Marcos Invitational on Monday and Tuesday. The event, held at San Luis Rey Downs in Bonsall, Calif., found the Tritons struggling, finishing in seventh place in a field of 11 teams.
Cal State Stanislaus led the tournament from the start, and a combined score of 894 gave it first place in the invitational. Stanislaus was the only team to shoot better than 298 in any one round, and the Warriors hit scores of 294 in each of the first two rounds of the tournament.
Grand Canyon University took second place, finishing nine strokes behind Stanislaus. Cal State San Bernardino and Point Loma Nazarene tied for third place with combined scores of 906 to round out the top four teams.
The Tritons got off to a bad start in the first two rounds of the event, shooting 311 in each of their Monday rounds. UCSD managed to improve by six strokes on Tuesday and finished the tournament with a score of 927.
“”Three hundred and eleven is too high of a score to have in any tournament,”” UCSD golf head coach Mike Wydra said.
Individually, the Warriors’ Bill Sutt was the only golfer in the entire field to break 70 in the tournament. Sutt finished in first place with an individual combined score of 214, two shots better than Chris Galeski of San Diego State. Rounding out the top three spots, Point Loma’s Josh Colace finished one stroke behind Galeski.
UCSD junior Ryan Gale finished in a tie for the fifth spot, along with Mark Lawless of Stanilaus and Ethan Potts of Point Loma. These golfers all shot scores of 221.
Gale had scores of 70, 74 and 77 in the tournament. The Tritons’ top finisher was the only golfer of the five UCSD participants to break 80 in the first round, and Gale was one of only two Tritons to shoot better than 80 in the second round.
The par-72 course at San Luis Rey Downs yielded many high scores from the tournament field. Golfers struggled on the course, which featured tight fairways and unique putting greens that caused problems for many people on the putting surfaces.
“”We had a couple of our regulars struggle on the course and found it not to their liking,”” Wydra said.
The Tritons will next take part in the Cal State San Bernardino Invitational on March 11 and March 12. Wydra and his team will use the event to prepare for the Southern California Intercollegiate Championship, which will be held March 13 and March 14 at the Auld Course in Chula Vista.
