UC Davis senior Brent Booth was having a tough spring.
He’d finished outside of the top-70 in three of his last four tournaments and he had yet to finish in the top-20 this season.
All of that changed last week.
Booth tied for 36th at the Oregon Duck Invitational early in the week. He followed that performance with a team-best 14th place finish at the Barona Collegiate Cup in San Diego, Calif. on Friday.
“Brent got his swing back on track,” said coach Cy Williams. “He’s a very good player. We knew he could play better than he had been and he showed that.”
March 22-23 – Oregon Duck Invitational
UC Davis did not get the start they were looking for in Oregon.
The Aggies were 19-over par in the first round, good for 12th-place out of 13 teams.
The Aggies rebounded in the second round as they improved by 11 strokes.
UC Davis finished the tournament in ninth place – 43 strokes behind No. 9 Oregon. Despite turning things around on the final day, the Aggies were not content with their finish.
“We’re not where we want to be,” Williams said. “We know we can do better. We still saw some good things.”
One of those things was sophomore Tim Honeycutt, who led the Aggies and ended the contest tied for 22nd at 4-over. He also shot a 71 in his second round, tied for the best on the team.
“He had a good tournament,” Williams said. “We can still get him going a little more, but he played really well.”
Honeycutt finished 11 strokes behind the leader, Daniel Miernicki of Oregon.
The Aggies had another strong performance by Austin Graham who finished tied for 31st at 6-over.
The San Clemente, Calif. native shot 7-over in the first round, but bounced back by shooting 1-under and even-par in the final two rounds.
March 25-26 – Barona Collegiate Cup
UC Davis had just one day between tournaments, good for their shortest break of the spring. The Aggies were unfazed despite the quick turnaround.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Williams said. “The guys are in good shape and fatigue never set in.”
The Aggies again finished ninth, this time with a score of 39-over. UC Davis was 47 strokes back of leaders San Diego State.
Booth led UC Davis with a score of 2-over, 14 strokes off the lead set by John Chin of UC Irvine.
Booth, who hails from Los Altos, Calif., tied the best score of any Aggie this spring by shooting a 68 in his final round
In addition to Booth’s impressive performance, Graham logged his eighth top-20 finish as he ended the tournament tied for 17th. His tournament was highlighted by an eagle on the par-four ninth hole in the second round.
The Aggies will take the course again at the US Intercollegiate on April 11th in Stanford, Calif.
TREVOR CRAMER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
