McClure Claims Top-20 Finish at Louisiana Classics

March 6, 2012

Louisiana Classics Final Results

LAFAYETTE, La. – Dylan McClure earned his second career top-20 finish at the Louisiana Classics Tuesday after shooting a 73 (+1) on the final day to tie for 17th with a three-round total of 217 (+1), but the Kansas men’s golf team fell back two places in the standings to conclude its opening tournament of 2012 tied for 13th place.

Kansas shot its worst round of the week with a 306 (+18), 22 strokes more than its second round, to wrap up the two-day event with a 54-hole aggregate of 887 (+23).

“There was a little bit of wind, and the scores were much higher today as a whole,” said Grove. “Yesterday, I really thought we were taking a step forward and doing a lot of positive things, but today we didn’t execute. We missed a ton of short putts, and we bogeyed par fives. You have to make sure you take care of business on the par fives and give yourself an opportunity. We just need to eliminate those errors.”

McClure, a freshman from Justin, Texas, marked the one steady performer during the week with all three rounds of 73 or better for the tournament. McClure had a very clean scorecard on the final day with 15 pars, a birdie and only two bogeys.

“He is driving the ball pretty consistently,” said Grove. “He’s hitting a lot of quality shots, but there’s always a learning process. The one mental error he made today was he bogeyed the third hole, which was a par five into the wind, by not hitting enough club. There was a back tier on the green. If you error long, there’s a great chance that it’s coming back to the hole. Instead, he hit a really good shot and was sitting in the front bunker with a very difficult lie. That’s part of maturity for him. It’s one thing to hit a bad shot. The last thing you want to do is hit a good shot and put yourself in a bad spot.”

While windy conditions caused the course average for the field to increase by more than two strokes from the previous round (72.76 to 75.15), Coach Grove said the team needed to adjust better.

“Obviously, in the wind, you’re not going to hit it as close, but we had a lot of three putts,” said Grove. “Everyone missed some five-footers. Three of the guys bogeyed their last hole. It’s just that type of thing. The wind was tough out there, but you have to fight through that. We’re used to not great conditions. We play in the wind. You still have to execute. It was just poor team execution and not staying in the moment. When you know it’s going to be a struggle, and you know the scores are going up, you have to find a way to make some pars coming in.”

The Jayhawks will return to action March 16-17 when they participate in the Border Olympics in Laredo, Texas.

Team Results
1. LSU – 283-279-285 – 847
T2. Tulsa – 290-284-287 – 861
T2. SMU – 285-284-292 – 861
4. Kent State – 285-281-299 – 865
5. Memphis – 284-283-299 – 866
T13. KANSAS – 297-284-306 – 887

Individual Results
1. Andrew Presley (LSU) – 68-68-70 – 206
2. Sang Yi (LSU) – 71-67-71 – 209
3. Philipp Fendt (Louisiana) – 73-68-69 – 210
T4. Luke Guthrie (Illinois) – 69-71-72 – 212
T4. Matt Mabrey (Tulsa) – 73-68-71 – 212

Kansas Results
T17. Dylan McClure – 73-71-73 – 217
T61. Alex Gutesha – 73-74-79 – 226
T61. Doug Quinones – 74-75-77 – 226
T61. Chris Gilbert – 80-69-77 – 226
T70. Paul Harris – 77-70-82 -229