Mens golf team takes swing at Colorado tournament
The Utah State University men’s golf team opened the fall season at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational in Colorado Spring last weekend.
While the event didn’t hold a stadium of 20,000 screaming fans, it did host five USU golfers who competed against 17 other universities at the Eisenhower Golf Course. The Aggies finished 10th overall, shooting 29 over 893 (304-291-298). USU men’s golf coach Dean Johansen said he was proud of the way his team competed.
“It’s a very difficult golf course and (we) had a few kids who had never seen the course before. I was pretty happy with a top 10 finish,” said Johansen, who is in his 11th season as head coach.
Colorado State won the tournament with a three-under 861 (280-293-288). Chris Shoop was their leading player who finished third with a 3-under 213 (69-70-74). Colorado State’s Ryan Peterson won medalist honors with a nine-under 207(69-68-70).
Utah State senior Tyson McFarland, hailing from Rexburg, Idaho, was USU’s top man, tying for 15th place with a two-over 218. McFarland shot his best round in the first with a 2-under 70. “I think he played really well… I won’t be surprised if he went to an event this year,” said Johansen.
Junior Chance Godderidge, of Smithfield, Utah, tied for 39th place with an eight-over 224 (72-78-74) as the Aggies’ second leading player. Sophomore Austin French, from Idaho Falls, Idaho, finished next in 75th place with a 15-over 231(80-70-81) and sophomore Brendan Dennis, of Roosevelt, Utah, shot a 17-over 233 for 83rd place.
Senior Benjamin Schilleman, from Layton, Utah, was disqualified for dropping his ball in an illegal area in the first round but finished his last two rounds with a 70 and 76, respectively. The penalty occurred after Schilleman hit a ball into a pond and dropped his ball into a white-circled area which usually denotes a drop area. The penalty wasn’t realized until the third round, however, after Schilleman hit a ball into the pond again and dropped his ball in the same place and was informed by a rules official that the area was actually from a club event from the week prior and therefore an illegal drop zone. Schilleman then went to coach Johansen and asked him to check on it.
“We checked on it and we figured it out with the rules officials and his score was dropped,” said Johansen, who went on to praise Schilleman for his high integrity about how he handled the situation.
“He actually then came to me and said, ‘Hey coach, I dropped the ball in the wrong spot way back in round one, can you check it out for me?” It took about 45 minutes with all the rules officials over there to figure out what they were going to do.”
All in all, despite the blow of having Schilleman disqualified because of a leftover from a previous event, USU still finished in 10th place. The team is looking forward to a productive fall season, and will play its next tournament on Oct. 4 in the Wolf Pack Classic hosted by the University of Nevada.
– jace.miller@aggiemail.usu.edu