Oct. 23, 2007
San Jose - The Santa Clara men's golf team had their best showing in two years, placing second as the host of the SCU Invitational. The team fnished just one stroke behind the winner, Portland. The Broncos were in third place after two rounds and shot a combined -3 to climb into second and leapfrog Oklahoma who was leading the tournament and leading Santa Clara by nine strokes.
Tim Lynch had the best individual finish for Santa Clara this year, shooting a final round 70 to finish seven under par and in second place for the tournament. "It's just hard work paying off," said Lynch. "I saw it creeping in a couple of weeks ago and I'm just gradually getting better. The biggest thing was putting. Coach Miller gave me a good putting lesson a while ago and it's starting to pay dividends."
Lynch started out +2 after his first six holes, but corrected himself with a string of birdies on the back nine, including a birdy on the final hole. "I told myself to just stay focused and let the scores and the course come to me," said Lynch. "I took it one shot at a time and came out okay."
Two Broncos ended up tied for 11th place at the end of the tournament. Jonathan Keane and Scott Travers both finished at -1 for the tournament. "We're just as good as anybody when we're playing well," said Keane. "And we truly believe that."
Travers ended up tying his first round score of 73 after shooting a second round 69. "It helped playing with Tim [Lynch] all tournament," said Travers. "Giving each other high fives and fist bumps after great shots, we helped each other out on the course."
Keane started out on fire, birdying four of his first seven holes before cooling off in the back nine, but still managed to hang on and make enough pars to shoot a -3 on the day. "I'm feeling really confident in my game and hopefully I can keep it going," said Keane.
Shaun Pienkos finished fourth for the Broncos, shooting a final round 73 to finish at +5 and tied for 28th. Stewart Loop posted his best round of the tournament today, shooting a 74 and finishing up +9 to end up tied for 39th in the 78 man field.
Also playing today were Santa Clara players Kellen Moss and Blair Myers who participated as induviduals. Moss, playing in his first tournament of the year, bounced back from a rough first round to shoot even par in his last two rounds, including a one over 73 today. "It was really nice to see Kellen out in competition and scoring again," said head coach Robert Miller. Myers had rounds of 79, 79, and 80 to end up at +22 and tied for 69th for the tournament.
"I think it was a great tournament for the guys," said Miller. "Everyone played well and had solid performances. When we have all of our guys out there playing decently, I think we have a chance to compete with anybody."
The players agree. "We're playing really well as a team right now. I feel like we're really close to winning a tournament," said Keane.
They'll get their next chance in two weeks when they go to UCLA for the CordeValle Collegiate. It will be one of the most difficult fields the team will face this year, but after such a promising performance at the SCU Invitational, nothing seems out of the question.
