The Ute golf team spent Monday and Tuesday of this week in Bremerton, Wash. at the Kikkor Golf Husky Invitational, where difficulties abounded.
Utah struggled from the beginning and finished in last place out of 15 teams. The Utes finished 43-over-par, which was 12 strokes behind the 14th-place team. The field was composed of squads entirely from the Western United States, including BYU and Pac-12 members Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Washington and Washington State. Washington took home the victory.
“Just talking with some of the guys, we are frustrated about our performance,” said Ute senior Ben Bankhead. “None of us putted very well.”
Sophomore Jonathan Thomas led the Utes in the event, finishing in a tie for 32nd place after a 1-over par final round allowed him to jump six spots on the leaderboard. Daniel Engle finished in 50th, Jack Maerki ended in 60th, Bankhead finished in 68th and Myles Sullivan took 72nd place.
The Utes played poorly from the beginning, finishing the first two rounds after day one of competition in last place. Thomas had shot 4-over par, which put him in 37th place. According to Bankhead, things only got worse as the final round on Tuesday unfolded.
“We were playing mediocre golf that turned into poor golf,” he said.
Utah will be back in action next week to play in the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational in Erie, Colo. The following week, the Utes will host the Utah Invitational at the Jeremy Golf and Country Club in Park City.
Bankhead stressed that putting and short game will be focused on in Colorado. He also mentioned that the team can’t focus on the poor performance and it needs to move on to the next event.
“We know we have it in us to preform and win these events,” he said.
Utes head coach Randall McCracken was not available for comment.