Harris Takes 11th Place in Kansas Invitational
Sept. 20, 2011
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PhotosFinal Round Results 
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Paul Harris carded a final round 75 at Alvamar Golf Club Tuesday to finish the Kansas Invitational with a three-round score of four-over par, which gave him the best individual finish of any Kansas men’s golfer with an 11th-place showing at the team’s home tournament. As a team, Kansas fell one spot in the final round to end the Invitational in fifth place with a team score of 884, 20-over par.
Harris, who posted rounds of 73 and 72 on the first day, had hopes of going lower in the final round and cracking the top 10.
“I hit some good shots and had some good looks, but nothing fell,” said Harris, a junior in his first season with the Jayhawks after transferring from Central Alabama Community College in Alexander City, Ala. “I got a bad break on No. 9 and made a double bogey. I played with the leader of the tournament who finished in a three-way tie for first place. I knew if I shot a couple-under par I had a really good chance to win it, but it’s been a while since I’ve been around par, so I’m moving in the right direction. I’m looking forward to next tournament. Hopefully, I’ll be under par.”
The Jayhawks finished 10 shots behind UMKC, who posted a four-under 284 in the final round to come back from fifth place on the final day and claim the title. Kansas head coach Kit Grove said that he had higher expectations for the team on its own course.
“It’s very disappointing,” said Grove. “This is our home turf, and we putted awful. This a good, hard golf course, but we did way too many things well to have the scores we had this week. I thought we had a pretty good week of practice. We did a lot of lag-putting drills because last week was the same deal. We played really solid last week except a couple guys struggled on the greens. The big thing I’m noticing is (judging) speed. We have to get better at that.”
Freshman Dylan McClure posted the best round of any KU golfer Tuesday with a 72, which moved him up the leaderboard into a tie for 15th place with five others, including juniors Chris Gilbert and Alex Gutesha of the Jayhawk squad. After a rough opening mark of 78, Gilbert rebounded nicely with rounds of 71 and 73 to climb 24 positions over the final 36 holes.
Kansas will compete next Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 26-27, in the Cardinal Intercollegiate in Louisville, Ky.
