Jayhawks Finish 10th at Big 12 Championship

April 24, 2007

LAWRENCE, KAN. –

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The Kansas men’s golf team finished the Big 12 Championship in 10th place after firing a final-round 304 to finish the event with 917 strokes. The final round of play was highlighted by sophomore Walt Koelbel’s career-best round of 69.

Koelbel finished the event tied for ninth place with 221 strokes and managed to move up 19 spots on the leaderboard in the final round of play. Koelbel’s finish marks his first top-10 finish in his Jayhawk career.

Koelbel was also named the All-Tournament team. He becomes the 11th Jayhawk to earn all-tournament honors in the 11-year history of the Big 12 Championship.

“If you would have told me I would have made one bogie, all those pars and two birdies, I would have taken that in a heartbeat,” said Koelbel. “It felt awesome playing that good today. I’ll take that every time.”

Senior Gary Woodland carded a final-round 76 to finish tied for 14th place. The finish marks the second time in Woodland’s career that he finished in the top-20 at the Big 12 Championship. Woodland has now amassed 10 top-20 finishes during his senior season.

“That is the round of Walt’s competitive career and we’re really pleased about that,” said head coach Ross Randall. “He did a great job. He really helped us a lot. Two and three hurt us a lot. The scores we would expect them to shoot really hurt us a lot and hurt our finish. Gary struggled. This isn’t the course for Gary. He can’t utilize his strength on this course the way he would like to.”

Senior Barrett Martens finished the tournament with his second consecutive round of 78 to finish tied for 40th. Junior Joey Mundy finished in 55th place after shooting a final-round score of 81. Senior Tyler Docking carded a final-round 82 to finish in 57th place.

“It’s disappointing to have a couple of guys play this poorly,” said Randall. “Hopefully we will hang on to finish high enough to have a shot at postseason and go from there.”

The Jayhawks will begin preparations now for the NCAA Central Regional which will be held at Rich Harvest Farms GC in Sugar Grove, Ill., May 17-19. The Jayhawks competed at Rich Harvest Farms during the fall portion of their schedule when they finished fifth at the Rich Harvest Farms Intercollegiate.