Puma Men's Golf head coach James Palmer, with the help of returning student-athletes Beau Autery and Isaac Ruiz, is hosting a fall season for the first time in program history. Coach Palmer filled the Pumas' roster with eight additional student-athletes for the year and competed in their first fall golf tournament, the South Mountain Classic, September 19 and 20 at Aguila Golf Course.
Returning golfers and team captains, Autrey and Ruiz led the team to a 5th place team finish. Autrey tied for 10th (+2 par) and Ruiz placed 18th (+5). Owen Slusher placed 22nd (+7) and Quincy Roberts tied for 33rd (+12).
After a disappointing round one (309), the Pumas bounced back on day two to shoot 293, the third lowest round for the day.
“We did not play well on Monday. We fought back Tuesday to score a respectable team score. For me, it was great to see the team competing in the fall and working as a team. I was very happy to see them continually supporting each other and motivating each other to get better. We will learn a lot from this first tournament and continue to grow,” said Coach Palmer.
Additionally, coach Palmer added, “Beau and Isaac had a solid tournament. They had lots of birdies but also other holes hurt them. We need to work on minimizing the mistakes so that the birdies they get keep them in the red numbers. Owen is new to the team this year but he is a very steady golfer. Putting hurt him this tournament, so we will be working on that. The rest of the team didn’t play as well, but we have time to work on their games to get them to where they need to be.”
Team results: https://results.
