No. 36 KU finishes fourth amidst rainy day

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Despite having rain cancel Saturday’s third-round action at the Hawkeye Invitational, the Kansas men’s golf team was still able to walk away with a fourth-place finish. While there were two Jayhawks to end in the top-20, the team’s 22-over finish tied the highest score of the season.

“It was a tough day of golf,” said Kansas head coach Jamie Bermel. “We had three solid scores, but had to count an 80 as our final score, and that hurt us as a team. We gave away a few strokes on the last couple of holes, but that sometimes can happen with bad weather.”

Sophomore Andy Spencer was rather unfazed by the bad weather, as he finished the day with a 2-over 74, resulting in a 3-over event-total. The finish earned him a share of eighth place, marking his fourth top-10 finish this season.

“Andy birdied the first hole and was pretty steady all day after that,” said Bermel. “He kept plugging along and put together a solid round.”

Finishing six spots behind Spencer was junior Charlie Hillier, whose 15th-place finish came as a result of his 5-over score. With this weekend’s addition, Hillier has now finished in 15th place or better in four of his last five events.

Like Hillier, senior Daniel Hudson also posted a 4-over 76 during his second round. Hudson’s round was highlighted by an eagle on hole No. 11, a 577-yard par-5 that Hudson managed to sink in three shots. The eagle was negated by three bogeys on his final six holes, which dropped the senior one stroke out of his 20th-career finish inside the top-20.

For senior Daniel Sutton, the weather got the best of his second round, as he ended with an 8-over 80. This round marks the highest round of Sutton’s two years at Kansas, but with his scores counting in both Friday and Saturday’s Hawkeye Invitational action, Sutton now has had 81.67 percent of his rounds count on the year. Sutton ended the event tied for 30th place at 8-over.

Competing as an individual, freshman Ben Sigel ended the round with a 5-over 77. The freshman holed three birdies during his second round, which had him join Spencer as the only Jayhawk with multiple birdies on the day. Sigel ended the event tied for 40th place at 10-over.

Freshman Harry Hillier’s second-round scorecard was also plagued by the bad weather, as he finished with a 10-over 82 on the day. After recording three birdies during Friday’s first round, Harry Hillier’s second round dropped him 20 places down the individual leaderboard, where he ended at a share of 50th place at 12-over.

Following their seventh-straight finish in the top-5, the Jayhawks’ regular season is all said and done. Up next for Bermel and his team will be the Big 12 Championship, hosted at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The three-day event begins Monday, April 23, with the team looking for its shot at a third-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Regionals.

 
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