Fresh off their victory against city rival California Baptist University at the Riverside Mission Cup, the men’s golf team headed up the coast to the prestigious Bayonet & Blackhorse Golf Club to compete against 18 universities at the Saint Mary’s Invitational from Sept. 23-24.
Although they showed a substantial 20-stroke improvement between rounds, the Highlanders still wobbled to a 16th-place finish out of 19 teams. UC Riverside started the 54-hole event slowly as the team shot a first round score of 317, but posted five scores in the 70s to secure a 297 for the middle round. Leven Simon Seay led the way for the Highlanders at the middle juncture with a score of 78-72, good for 35th place.
The deciding round saw UCR move up one spot on the leaderboard as the team shot a score of 299, which was the 10th-best outing of the tournament round, before finishing the invitational in 16th place. Simon Seay was the top performer for the Highlanders, wrapping up the tournament tied for 25th overall with a 223 (78-72-73), while David Gazzolo (226), Sam Gillis (234), Brandon Tsujimoto (237) and Pachara Sakulyong (238) rounded out the UC Riverside squad.
California steamrolled through the competition, accumulating a total score of 854 (288-282-284) through three rounds while San Diego’s Grant Forrest won top honors with a 7-under par and an individual score of 209.
