Puma Men’s Golf team traveled down to Tucson to play in the Pima Community College Invitational at Randolph North Golf Course early this week. There was a strong field of colleges with five of the eight conference teams ranked in the top 10 nationally.
The Pumas placed 4th in this week’s event shooting a +14 for the two-day match. South Mountain Community College shot a team score of -5 to win the event. The Pumas are now ranked #6 in the nation on GolfStat.
Keelan Cole shot an even par that placed him in 6th place. His first day he was -1 par and was in contention to win the tournament. However, he got off to a slow start and ended up shooting +1 par in his second round.
Coach Palmer said, “Keelan is close to getting a win under his belt. But we are competing against some really good players. Although even par is a good score, he knows against these teams under par is the only way you can win. He hit pretty much every fairway, so hopefully he can sharpen his scoring irons and putter to get his scores lower.”
Owen Slusher shot (+4, +1). Coach Palmer stated, “Owen is getting back to form from this fall so it is nice to see him shoot decent scores. He made a few mistakes that cost him some strokes on some short putts.”
Beau Autrey and Isaac Ruiz both shot +7 for the tournament. “Both players hit the ball well. They just didn’t get the ball in the hole. Isaac on the second day was -2 after nine but had some errors on the back. Beau is disappointed in his performance. We chatted afterwards about their rounds, so moving forward, things will improve.”
Quincy Robert (+13, +1) and Jaxx Johnson (+12, +10) both improved the second day. “Our throwaway scores should never be above +3 for any day. It was good to see Quincy comeback with a solid +1 for the second round.”
“When you compete against nationally ranked teams, you have to be ready before we even start. My guys can’t rely on having bounce back rounds. It’s great that we can come back and improve, but when you dig a deficit after day one against players who are going to go low both days, that comeback round is near impossible. Our mental games have to be better prepared. The guys think they have time to make up strokes, but it’s only a two day tournament. The time to catch up expires quickly.”
Keelan Cole, E
Owen Slusher, +5
