Birdies were in abundance for the Dixie State University men’s golf team as it finished middle of the pack at the Academy of Art/East-West Bay Area Invitational.
Fifty-four holes in two days was the challenge that presented itself to the Trailblazers at The Course at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, California.
After finishing with a final score of 917 (+53), DSU claimed the sixth position among a 12-team field with 61 overall players.
The 6,580 yard par 72 course showed its teeth as it only yielded a total of two eagles to the field and collected nearly two times as many bogeys as it did birdies.
“The course is a little tough,” said senior Tyson Tanner, an integrated studies major from Idaho Falls, Idaho. “[On] two of the par-5s, if you made par on them, that was a good score. We just had a few holes get away from us.”
DSU managed to put all five of its players in the top-half of the field, a feat that no other team accomplished.
Junior Dane Nelson, sophomore Nicklaus Britt and Tanner all finished at a tie for 20th with a 230 (+14) score. Freshman James Avis finished one stroke behind with an overall score of 231 (+15) in 26th place while DSU’s other freshman, Jayce Frampton, finished with a 232 (+16) score in a tie for 27th.
“I think it shows, with all [us] finishing close, the team is very competitive,” said Avis, a finance major from Brisbane, Australia. “We are all trying to do as well as we can. It shows that we are all pretty close in terms of how we are playing.”
Even though the Trailblazers led the field with a total of 36 birdies, the players struggled to avoid the high scores throughout their rounds. DSU accumulated 17 double bogeys and four triples. Even though the course was tough, Nelson said it had some scorable holes.
“I feel like our ball striking overall was pretty good,” Nelson said. “We hit a lot of greens, [but] we struggled a little bit making putts. We could have had even more birdies or really [saved] a few [more] pars to eliminate those big numbers.”
DSU will try to keep up its good play as the team heads back to Livermore, California in two weeks’ time for the Notre Dame de Namur Invitational at Poppy Ridge Golf Course on March 13 and 14.
