The golf team finished fifth at the Atchafalaya Intercollegiate early this week among 12 teams in the team’s first competition of the spring semester. The tournament ran short, with only one full 18-hole round on Monday, due to rain delays during both rounds of the tournament.
ACU fell behind Wichita State University, Nicholls, Central Arkansas, and University of Louisiana at Monroe. ACU finished with a team score of 294, one stroke off fourth-placed Wichita State and just six shots behind second-placed Central Arkansas.
“We beat a lot of teams that we needed to beat,” head coach Tom Shaw said.
Freshman Garrett Glanton, who played individually for the cats, tied for third in the tournament with a score of 70; one shot behind the leaders. Glanton said the course was one of the easier ones they have faced this year but that the weather conditions made it difficult.
“The conditions were perfect until it started to rain, which made the course lay a lot longer,” Glanton said. ” The poor conditions forced me to play a little more conservative than I would have liked off the tee and into the greens.”
Despite Glanton’s round as an individual, he could not help out the men’s team as a whole.
“I was pretty disappointed to play as an individual because I couldn’t help the team, but I was really happy to get a chance to play,” Glanton said. “I would have like to play at least 36 holes, but I was please with the way I closed out the round.”
Senior Luke Carpenter tied for tenth shooting a 72 during Monday’s round.
“I think the guys played very well,” Shaw said. ” We had some guys struggling with putting. We would like to go to tournaments ready to execute and perform.”
One struggle the cats faced this week was playing on Bermuda grass. Without Bermuda grass in Abilene to practice on, it makes preparation impossible.
Glanton said playing on Bermuda was an advantage for him because he grew up playing on that type of grass.
The golf team will play their second tournament of the spring season in Houston at the Houston Baptist Spring Invitational. The tournament will begin on Monday and finish Tuesday.
