Ahead of the inaugural Abilene Christian Intercollegiate tournament, the men’s golf team is coming off an 11th-place finish, one over par, at the Trinity Forest Invitational from Oct. 4-6.

The Wildcats competed among 17 other teams, including the host team, SMU, and other Power Four programs such as USC and Baylor.

ACU finished the first round two over par and improved in the final two rounds, finishing at par in the second round and one under par in the third.

“We didn’t play as well as we would have liked to,” Cooper Watson, a freshman from Lawton, Oklahoma, said. “We’re just wasting too many shots on the easy holes, and our stats are showing that we make too many bogeys on par fours.”

Individually, Watson, the only freshman on the team, led the Wildcats to the best performance for the program in the Division I era and recorded the lowest 54-hole score by a freshman since 2012. Watson finished five strokes under par, putting him in a four-way tie for 12th place.

Watson finished each round under par: one under in the first and third rounds and three under in the second round.

The other four Wildcats finished as follows:

• Rex Hargrove, a redshirt junior from Houston, tied for 39th at one over par.
• Kade McDonough, a redshirt sophomore from Missoula, Montana, tied for 44th at two over par.
• Maximilian Bjornstrom, a sophomore from Hollviken, Sweden, tied for 60th at five over par.
• Luis Buech, a junior from Berlin, Germany, tied for 80th at 11 over par.

After a week off, the Wildcats will compete again beginning Monday at Halbert National in Granbury.

The tournament will feature nine teams, including ACU:

• Michigan
• Houston
• SMU
• Missouri
• Rice
• Arizona
• Texas A&M
• Tulsa

Watson said the team’s practice has focused on improving its performance from the Trinity Forest Invitational.

“Our practice has been focused on 150 yards and in to try and better our shots coming into [the] greens so that we’re not bogeying the par 4s when we need to be scoring on those holes,” he said.

The inaugural tournament is set to tee off at 3 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Golf Channel.