Texas Tech University Athletics
Regular Season Wraps Up with ASU Thunderbird
April 10, 2007 | Men's Golf
April 10, 2007
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LUBBOCK, Texas - After accomplishing the school's greatest turnaround in their previous tournament, the Texas Tech men's golf team will hope to continue the success at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational beginning Fri., April 13th. The Red Raiders will compete in the tournament over the course of three days in Tempe, Ariz., with the final round scheduled for Sun., April 15th. Karsten Golf Course will host the event that gets its start at 9:30 a.m. CST from the 1st and 10th holes on Friday.
Live scoring can be found on Golf Stat's results site, www.golfstatresults.com during the Thunderbird's action. Complete Texas Tech results can be found on the Red Raiders' athletic site, www.texastech.com, following each day's completion.
THE COURSE
The 2007 edition of the ASU Thunderbird Invitational will take place on the par-72, 7,037 yard Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz. The Arizona State Sun Devil golf squads call the course that is located right off of campus "home". Located minutes from downtown and the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, the course has hosted several notable events such as the Men's and Women's Pac-10 and NCAA Championships, the ASU Thunderbird Invitational, PING Invitational and the U.S. Open Qualifying.
THE ASU THUNDERBIRD FIELD
A consistent feature of each of Tech's tournaments during the 2006-07 season is a strong field, which the ASU Thunderbird Invitational will not be lacking. Nine of the field's 15 teams are ranked in the top 50 of the Golfweek/Sagarin performance index. Among the top 10 programs in the nation are Thunderbird competitors No. 5 Southern California and No. 7 UNLV.
Other top 50 teams in the field are No. 23 Arizona, No. 19 Arizona State, No. 36 Baylor, No. 40 UCF, No. 46 San Diego State, No. 15 Texas A&M and No. 35 Texas Tech. The remaining teams are No. 54 California, No. 101 Fresno State, No. 132 Kansas State, No. 58 New Mexico, No. 97 Oklahoma and No. 72 Oregon.
After having already faced many of the country's top golf programs during the season, Tech has also faced nearly all of the ASU Thunderbird's competition. The Red Raiders have a record of 11-17-1 (.379) against 11 of the teams. The Tech team has earned victories over Arizona, Baylor, UCF, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas A&M and UNLV. Facing the Red Raiders for the first time this season are Fresno State, Kansas State and San Diego State.
During Tech's last outing, the National Invitational Tournament, the team came up with wins against New Mexico and UNLV, while falling to Arizona, Arizona State and Texas A&M.
THE LAST TEE
April 3, 2007 TUCSON, Ariz. -- The Texas Tech men's golf team fired the second-lowest round of the National Invitational Tournament to improve 19 strokes from Monday's second round. The Red Raiders moved from a tie for 11th to finish sixth with scores of 291-295-276--862, 2-under-par. The turnaround marks the second largest comeback from the second to third round in school history, but finishes as the greatest in terms of impact on the team's standings.
The effort comes after every Tech individual finished even-par or better during Tuesday's final round. The team finished with a total of 26 birdies on the day, while only notching 23 (including one eagle) in the previous two rounds.
Spearheading the comeback was senior Oscar Floren who finished with his second-lowest round of his final spring season with the Red Raiders as he fired a 4-under 68 on the day. The Sweden native finished with rounds of 70-73-68--211 (-5) to tie for fifth place, marking his eighth career top-five finish.
Freshman Will Griffin fired the lowest round of the day for Tech as he carded a 5-under 67, finishing with rounds of 72-73-67--212, 4-under-par. The San Antonio native tied for seventh notching his second top-10 finish in nine competitions for Tech.
Also firing under-par on the day was sophomore Santiago Rivas, who carded a 3-under 69 to finish out the tournament. The native of Columbia turned in rounds of 75-76-69--220 to tie for 43rd place. Sophomore Garrett Merrell tied for 34th after a par effort in the final round, as he finished with scores of 74-73-72--219. Freshman Matt Smith also finished even-par on Tuesday and ended the National Invitational with rounds of 76-79-72--227 to tie for 66th.
While sitting behind the pack of predominately ranked programs during Monday's play, Tech's strong finish brought them ahead of No. 6 UNLV, No. 30 TCU, No. 26 Duke, No. 46 Northwestern, No. 23 Texas and No. 48 Pepperdine. Arizona State took the team title after firing the field's lowest round on Tuesday with a 14-under 274. The Sun Devils won with scores of 287-279-274--840 (-24) and finished eight shots ahead of No. 10 UCLA. The efforts of two Arizona State individuals led to their victory as Niklas Lemke took the individual title with a 9-under 207 and Benjamin Alvarado tied for second with an 8-under 208.
THUNDERBIRD HISTORY
The Red Raiders will be competing in the ASU Thunderbird for the fourth-consecutive year and will be hoping to crack the top five for the first time. The team's top finish was during the 2003-04 season as they placed seventh with a 54-hole score of 851. The top Red Raiders placed among the field's top 20 individually as Oscar Floren tied for 10th with a 207 and Andrew Dresser tied for 20th with 212.
During the 2004-05 Thunderbird, Tech finished ninth with a three-round score of 878. Floren finished tied for 18th with a score of 217.
In last year's edition, the Red and Black struggled to keep up with the blistering pace set by the top teams of the field. Texas Tech finished 12th with rounds of 284-289-298--871, 19-over par. The top six teams ended with under-par scores, with Arizona leading after turning in 278-280-272--830 (-22). UNLV was one shot behind the leader as they fired rounds of 279-270-282--831 (-21). Kansas State's Ben Kern shot a three-round tournament record as he took the individual title with a 14-under 199.
Players Mentioned
