What goes up must come down.
After the strong performance by the Aggies at the Amer Ari Invitational in Hawaii, at which they earned a 48th national ranking, the UC Davis men’s golf team struggled at the Battle of the Beach event at Pelican Hill Golf Course Feb. 13 to 15th.
The Aggies placed 10th out of 13 tough teams with a final team score of 1,102. UC Davis didn’t have a player finish in the top-20.
While the 10th place finish might not seem up to the Aggies’ potential, coach Cy Williams was still pleased with his team’s performance.
“It has to give us some confidence moving forward,” Williams said. “Our results were pretty good, and no one player had a dominant performance. We found a couple of areas from this tournament that we can improve on.”
Tyler Raber led the Aggies, tying for 23rd at six-over par. Sophomore Andrew Haggen finished tied for 35th at nine-over. Austin Graham carded a 76 during his final round to tie for 45th overall at 11-over.
The Aggies posted a 54-hole score of 52-over 1,102, nine shots back of No. 36 Oregon State and seven shots ahead of fellow Big West Conference opponent Long Beach State.
Granger shot even on every hole on his back nine to finish at three-over 73 for the round, a three-stroke improvement on his second round score, while Graham’s final round also featured 12 pars. Covrig’s final round included three birdies and Seramin shot even on nine holes.
San Diego’s Kenneth McCready took medalist honors in the 13-team tournament, shooting 71 Tuesday to finish at six-under 203.
If there’s one thing the Aggies have going for them this season is their roster depth.
“It’s great to get [so much] contribution throughout the lineup,” Williams said, “Our main goal was for everyone to contribute and to beat some ranked teams. We definitely accomplished our goals.”
UC Davis will hope to show off this depth when it returns to action Feb. 28 to March 1 at the USC Collegiate Invitational.
RON HOOPER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
