Facing nearly a month off, the Utah golf team heads to the late season Collegiate Classic in San Diego, Calif. to wrap up the fall season. The tournament starts today and runs until Friday.
“This is a new tournament later in the year,” said golf coach Wayne Fisher, whose players have been playing every day thanks to a generous Mother Nature.
The bonus tournament could provide a lift for Utah before heading into a three month hibernation (The golf team does not have another university-sanctioned event until the John Burns Invitational in Hawaii, Feb. 20).
At the team’s last competition in mid-October, the golfers finished a season best 10th place in a field with more than 20 teams.
“We are looking to carry our momentum from the last round of the Countrywide Invitational. This showed us what this team is capable of.”
Or more accurately, it shows what a player is capable of. The difference in the finish was the play of sophomore Luke Swilor.
Swilor shot a two-over par 218, including a round of par (72) and a final round of three under par (69). The performance earned him sixth place out of 120 golfers.
The performance upped Swilor’s season average after nine rounds of play to 75.77, trailing only freshman Ashdon Woods. Woods fired a three round score of 227 (75.66 per round) at the Fresno Lexus Golf Classic Oct. 5-6. Woods will get his second tournament opportunity this weekend.
Swilor and Woods will be joined by freshman Nick Micek, junior Bruce Summerhays Jr. and senior Paul Winterowd.
A quality performance by the five golfers would be an important confidence booster, said Swilor. “It would be good for the team to go out on a good note.”