Boulder City, Nevada – An superb final-round performance yielded a ninth-place finish for the University of the Fraser Valley men’s golf team at the Jackrabbit Invitational in Boulder City, Nevada on the weekend.
The tournament, hosted by the South Dakota State Jackrabbits at Boulder Creek Golf Club, was the third NCAA Division I event for the Cascades in a three-week span, following The Prestige Individual Invitational (hosted by UC Davis, Feb. 17-19) and The Joust at Goose Creek (hosted by California Baptist University, Feb. 24-25).
After playing 36 holes on Friday, the Cascades found themselves in 10th place in the team standings at 22 over par. But on Saturday, playing in gusty conditions, they turned in the fourth-best team score of the day (+6), led by Wyatt Brook’s two-under 70 which was the second-best individual round of the day.
The final-round surge moved the UFV squad just one step up the ladder to ninth place, but head coach Chris Bertram noted it “showed us we can challenge for wins at this level.”
“We’ve already demonstrated we can compete . . . what that (final round) showed us is, we can win,” Bertram said. “And that was a really important step. The past few events and the rounds leading up to that, we hadn’t played our best. . . . But we were actually leading the day until about the last two holes (on Saturday).
“The first two events, the Prestige and the Joust, understandably the players were a little bit intimidated. When guys in your group have Stanford and UCLA bags, you hold that on a bit of a pedestal. But with 10 days to process it, I think we had time to learn from that experience.”
Brook led the way for the Cascades, carding rounds of 75, 73 and 70 to finish tied for 16th individually. On Saturday, the third-year golfer from Kamloops fired three birdies against just a single bogey on his final hole of the day.
“He just played beautifully,” Bertram enthused. “It really showed some significant growth and development in his mindset and put his game on display in really tough conditions.”
Daniel Campbell also had a solid performance in Nevada, finishing tied for 22nd at +4. Halen Davis (+12, T45), Zach Olson (+14, T49) and Kyle Claggett (+15, T53) rounded out the UFV contingent, with Davis (74) and Claggett (75) delivering their best rounds of the tourney on Saturday to help boost the Cascades.
The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles ran away with the team title, finishing at -15 to easily outdistance Nevada (+7), Texas State (+14), Boston College (+16) and Southern Utah (+17). The Golden Eagles’ Dustin Hasley opened with a 63 – the best round of the tourney by three strokes – on his way to the individual crown, finishing at -13.
