The U men’s golf team kicked off its season the way it ended last season.
The Utes struggled in their first tournament of the year this past weekend, finishing tied for 15th out of the 17 teams participating in the 2009 William H. Tucker Intercollegiate. Utah shot a combined score of 911 on the weekend8212;43 over par. Juniors Chase Hite and Mike Branca led the way for Utah, both shooting 226, good enough to tie for No. 56 at 10 over par. Derek Adams finished a stroke behind his teammates, shooting a combined score for 227. Junior Jeff Kitches and sophomore Joe Webber round out the Utes who competed in the Tucker, shooting 19 and 22 over, respectively. As a team, the Utes had a total of five rounds in the 80s.
The Utes finished last out of the seven Mountain West Conference teams participating in the tournament. The rest of the Mountain West fared well in New Mexico. MWC teams swept the podium with BYU in third, San Diego State in second and UNLV winning the tournament. The individual competition was also won by UNLV’s Colby Smith and Derek Ernst who each shot eight under during the weekend.
The Utes will have to work quickly to turn it around before heading back out on the road this coming weekend when they travel to Colorado Springs to take part in the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational hosted by the Air Force Academy.