Gilbert Paces Kansas Golfers At Big 12 Championships
April 27, 2011
Complete Resultes in PDF Format
HUTCHINSON, Kan. – Behind the play of sophomore Chris Gilbert, who tied for 14th place individually, the Kansas golf team placed ninth at the Big 12 Championships Wednesday.
On a difficult day on a very unforgiving golf course, Kansas dropped two spots to place ninth. OklahomaState, with the top two individual finishers, cruised to a 13-stroke victory over Texas A&M.
It was a day in which the best team score was 14-over par and no individual bested par at fabled Prairie Dunes.
Kansas, which had carded rounds of 290, 303 and 293, shot a 317 on the final day. KU was handicapped with using just four players, due to an injury, and had to count those four players’ scores in all four rounds. Every other team was able to count the top four of five players each round.
“We were picked 11th going into the week, so finishing ninth was higher than was expected,” said Jayhawk head coach Kit Grove. “Having just four guys made it very tough.”
Gilbert, a sophomore was able to post the team’s best round in each of the last two days, carding a 69 Tuesday and a 75 Wednesday. His 292 total tied for 14th. Gilbert, who led the team in scoring average this season, posted his third-straight top-15 finish, as well as his sixth in 12 tournaments this year
Doug Quinnones shot a final-day 79 to tie for 22nd at 296, while Alex Gutesha was 35th at 301 and Nate Barbee was 47th at 307. Gutesha closed with an 82 while Barbee finished with an 81.
“I was proud of the guys for hanging in there,” Grove said. “The golf course played extremely hard Wednesday. You can see that from the scores. Some of the best teams in the country were shooting 15, 20-over par.”
Oklahoma State, which shot a 10-under par 270 on Tuesday, was 14-over par Wednesday at 294, while runner-up Texas A&M shot 295. Six of the 12 teams scored more than 300.
And while the Jayhawks, like the rest of the field, struggled on the final day, Grove felt it could have been better.
“Unfortunately we gave a few strokes away on the greens at the end of the round,” he said. “Three guys three-putted at least one of their last three holes.”
Yet Grove was still proud of his team.
“Four on five today was very difficult with guys knowing they didn’t have a backup,” he said. “They stayed after it as long as they could. At the end, it is a golf course that tends to get the upper hand anyway.”
Big 12 Men’s Golf Championship
Final Results
Team Standings
1. Oklahoma State 283-292-270-294—1139
2. Texas A&M 286-296-275-295—1152
3. Texas 287-291-284-298—1160
4. Texas Tech 286-299-281-297—1163
5. Missouri 300-302-276-295—1173
6. Oklahoma 287-292-288-311—1178
7. Baylor 296-299-291-297—1183
8. Nebraska 286-303-297-308—1194
9. Kansas 290-303-286-317—1196
10. Colorado 291-307-293-317—1208
11. Kansas State 296-306-298-320—1220
11. Iowa State 302-305-293-320—1220
Individual Leaders
1. Morgan Hoffmann, OSU 70-69-68-73—280
2. Kevin Tway, OSU 66-73-71-75—285
3. Jordan Russell, A&M 77-69-66-74—286
Kansas Individuals
T14. Chris Gilbert 73-75-69-75—292
T22. Doug Quinones 69-77-71-79—296
T35. Alex Gutesha 75-72-72-82—301
T47. Nate Barbee 73-79-74-81—307
WD. Dan Waite (withdrew – injury)