Men’s golf starts season with second place finish at Badger Invitational

Badger Invitational
University Ridge Golf Course
| Madison, Wis.
Par-72 | 7,294 yards
Final Results

Place Team Score
1 Illinois State 855 (-9)
2 KANSAS 859 (-5)
T3 Iowa State 863 (-1)
T3 Nevada 863 (-1)
5 Marquette 867 (+3)
6 UAB 878 (+14)
7 Northern Illinois 588 (+12)
8 Rutgers 591 (+15)
9 Notre Dame 594 (+18)
10 Wisconsin 895 (+31)
11 South Dakota State 901 (+37)
12 Xavier 917 (+53)
Individual Leaderboard (Top 5)
Place Name Team Score
1 Joey Vrzuch NEV 203 (-13)
2 Lachlan Barker ISU 206 (-10)
T3 Dave Perkins ILL ST 208 (-8)
T3 Hunter Eichorn MAR 208 (-8)
T5 Tony Jiang RUT 211 (-5)
T5 Thomas DeMarco NIU 211 (-5)
Kansas Leaderboard
Place Name Score
T7 Harry Hillier 213 (-3)
T11 Andy Spencer 216 (E)
T16 Drew Shepherd 218 (+2)
T20 Ben Sigel 219 (+3)
T23 Charlie Hillier 220 (+4)
T32 Jake Scarrow (I) 223 (+7)

MADISON, Wis. – With top-20 finishes from sophomore Harry Hillier, junior Andy Spencer, redshirt sophomore Drew Shepherd and sophomore Ben Sigel, the Kansas men’s golf team placed second at the Badger Invitational Tuesday to open the 2018-19 season.
 
Entering Tuesday’s third and final in second place, Kansas maintained its foothold with a three-round team score of 5-under (859), falling just short of tourney champ Illinois State’s 9-under (855). Iowa State and Nevada tied for third in the 12-team field at 863.
 
In the final round, Harry Hillier and Spencer found their niche early as they both eagled hole No. 2 at University Ridge Golf Course en route to shooting a 3-under 69. Harry Hillier tied for seventh-place with a three-round 213 (-3) to mark the first top-10 finish of his KU career. Spencer, who finished second at last season’s Badger Invitational, would shoot even par for the tournament (216) and placed tied for 11th in the 78-golfer field.
 
“Harry played well today and for the week,” KU head coach Jamie Bermel said. “He made a couple of sloppy bogeys, but hung in there for the most part. It was good to see Andy have a good day. He got off to a slow start on some tough opening holes for him, but showed a lot of maturity and battled back.”
 
Making his collegiate debut, Shepherd finished the invitational 2-over (218), tying for 16th. With two solid first rounds of even par play, Shepherd recorded five birdies in his final round en route to a 74 (+2).
 
“I was impressed with Drew this week.” Bermel said. “It was his first college event and he did very well.”
 
Sigel, who made his collegiate debut at last season’s Badger Invitational as an individual, concluded the tournament with 1-over 73 on Tuesday. He would tie for 20th overall with a three-round 219 (+3). Charlie Hillier entered the final round tied for seventh but faltered over the final nine holes shooting a 78. He ended the event tied for 23rd with a 223 (+4).
 
Senior Jake Scarrow, who played as an individual, opened day three with a 4-over on the front nine, but would finish strong with an even par performance on the back nine carding a 76. His three-round 223 (+7) tied for 32nd.
 
“We need to really work on short game this week and do better in that area overall,” Bermel said. “Overall, we had a solid week, but I think we can do better.”
 
NOTABLES

  • Kansas has finished either first or second at the Badger Invitational in four of its last five times it has participated in the event, all of those in the Jamie Bermel era. Only once in that span did KU not place in the top two.
  • Sophomore Harry Hillier tied for seventh in the field, marking his first top 10 finish as a Jayhawk.
  • Sophomore Ben Sigel tied for 20th, his highest finish while at Kansas. His 69 in round two tied for his low round as a collegiate. Sigel also had a 69 in his third round at last year’s Badger Invitational.
  • Redshirt sophomore Drew Shepherd competed in his first collegiate tourney, finishing tied for 16th.
  • With an 11th place, junior Andy Spencer has finished in the top 15 on 10 occasions during his KU career.
  • With the second-place finish, under Jamie Bermel Kansas has posted 41 top-five tournament finishes, including nine tourney titles. 

UP NEXT
Kansas’ second fall tournament will be Sept. 24-25 at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate in Birmingham, Alabama. Designed by Jack Nicklaus, Shoal Creek has played host to two PGA Championships (1984, 1990), the 1986 U.S. Amateur, the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur, the Regions Tradition on the Champions Tour from 2011-2015 and the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open.
 
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KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.