Kansas Invitational Round One Results

Kansas’ men’s golf team finished two rounds of play at the Kansas Invitational Monday and enters Tuesday’s final round in seventh place. Sophomore Chris Gilbert led the way for the Jayhawks shooting a 71 in round one and a 74 in round two, putting him in a tie for 14th place individually at 145.

The Jayhawks started off the day in good shape, finishing the first round with a score of 291, just two strokes out of first place. In addition to Gilbert’s 71, freshman Alex Gutesha, who made his collegiate debut on Monday, fired a 71 as well. Junior Doug Quinones also was impressive, shooting a 72. Freshman Bryce Brown, who was also making his collegiate debut, shot a 77. Senior Nate Barbee rounded out the five individuals shooting an 80 in round one.

The team did not fare nearly as well in the second round, shooting a 303. Gilbert again led the Jayhawks shooting a 74. Barbee shaved six strokes off of his round one score, also giving him a 74 for round two. Gutesha finished the round with a 77. Quinones shot a 78 and Brown ended his day with an 80.

Head Coach Kit Grove was disappointed that his team did not perform better in the tournament they are hosting.

“Today wasn’t very good,” he said. “(Our) 291 was pretty decent this morning. Alex, Chris, and Doug did well but we needed a good fourth score in there. It’s tough when you’re counting scores of 77 and above. This afternoon, we had a couple of trainwrecks out there early with some guys. Chris had it going, but we fell a little back from him.”

One of the few positives that Grove took away from the day was the play of Gutesha, a freshman.

“It was good to see Alex play well in that first round,” Grove said. “He got off to a bad start, but he hung in there and he could have easily picked up a few strokes. You’ve got to try and defend your home turf. You just can’t afford to have 74 be your low round in the afternoon.”

Coach Grove expects that a solid outing Tuesday can help the team move up a spot or two.

“If we can go out and shoot something around par, maybe we can sneak up a little bit,” Grove said. “But we’ve definitely got our work cut out for us. We are eight back of fourth place. We’re probably going to have to shoot around a 284 to make up decent room. We’ve definitely got an uphill battle for us Tuesday.”

Nebraska leads the tournament with a score of 578. Scott Willman of Nebraska leads all individuals with an impressive 140 after two rounds.

The third and final round will start at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday. The event, which is taking place at the Alvamar Public Golf Course, is free and open to the public.

Team Leaders

1 Nebraska 290-288–578

2 Oklahoma City 292-289–581

3 Missouri State 292-293–585

4 UMKC 294-292–586

5 Oral Roberts 287-302–589

7 Kansas 291-303–594

Individual Leaders

1 Scott Willman (Nebraska) 72-68–140

2 Gustaf Kocken (ULM) 69-72–141

T3 Clark Collier (Ok. City) 71-71–142

T3 Ben Juffer (Kansas St.) 67-75–142

T14 Chris Gilbert (Kansas) 71-74–145

Kansas Individuals

T14 Chris Gilbert 71-74–145

T17 Jeff Bell (Ind.) 73-73–146

T24 Alex Gutesha 71-77–148

T24 Dan Waite (Ind.) 73-75–148

T24 Jordan Lowery (Ind.) 71-77–148

T35 Doug Quinones 72-78–150

T35 David Catt (Ind.) 75-75–150

T57 Nate Barbee 80-74–154

T74 Bryce Brown 77-80–157

84 Clay LaBrec 82-79–161

Round One Results in PDF Format Get Acrobat Reader