Kansas Travels to Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate to Defend Title
Oct. 23, 2011
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Led by a trio of golfers who competed in last year’s event, Kansas men’s golf will look to defend its title when it travels to the Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate to conclude the fall season.
Senior Doug Quinones, juniors Chris Gilbert, Alex Gutesha and Paul Harris and freshman Dylan McClure will represent KU in the tournament held at the New Mexico State University Golf Course in Las Cruces, N.M. Quinones, Gilbert and Gutesha were all members of last year’s squad that won the event with a team score of 870 (+6). Kansas head coach Kit Grove said last year’s victory was an unexpected surprise after the way the tournament started.
“We actually played very poorly in the first round and shot 295 on a golf course that wasn’t overly difficult,” said Grove. “We were kind of toward the back of the pack, played decent the next round and crept up into fifth place. We were far enough back that I don’t know that you think about winning. When you’re 10 to 12 shots back, that’s a lot to make up, especially when one of the teams is the host team, but we went out and had three guys play really well. Chris, Alex and Nate (Barbee) all shot 68 or better. Doug chipped in with a 74, and it was enough to end up nipping UNLV by one stroke. That was definitely cool for the guys.”
While Coach Grove hopes his team can create a repeat performance, his expectations are much more tempered after the team finished 12th at The Invitational last week and 10th in the Cardinal Intercollegiate prior to that.
“We have to start small right now,” said Grove. “These last two weeks have been the type of weeks you try to avoid, and we had them back-to-back, so we have to start moving back in the right direction. It’s a team effort. We just want to have a positive finish to build on going into the spring.”
Coach Grove knows that the New Mexico State University Golf Course is a great place to start turning things around with the team’s past success, even though the tournament field and course layout have changed a little.
“It’s a golf course where we’ve had some players have some success,” said Grove. “The field is a little deeper, but fairly similar to what it was last year. They’ve built a few new tees and lengthened it a little bit, but it’s a very playable golf course. Two of the guys (Gilbert and Gutesha) going back there have some positive vibes. Doug played solid last week, so hopefully he can keep that going. If we can get those three guys to play like they can and get a little bit of help out of Paul or Dylan, hopefully we can end this year on a brighter note than what’s been going on recently.”
Kansas will play two rounds Monday and the final round Tuesday with each day beginning with a shotgun start at 9 a.m. Central.
