Sept. 20, 2003
TOLEDO, Ohio - Bolstered by a trio of 73's, the Missouri men's golf team improved to a 12th-place finish Saturday against what will be its toughest field of the regular season at the Inverness Intercollegiate.
The Tigers compiled a final round of 298, which allowed the Tigers to leapfrog Duke and Northwestern with a final tournament total of 921, 35 strokes behind tournament champion UCLA.
Senior David Jenkins (Springfield, Mo. / Glendale HS / Southwest Missouri State) turned in one of Mizzou's three final-round scorecards of two-over 73, allowing him to earn his first top-10 finish of the season. Senior Michael Radek (Chicago, Ill. / St. Ignatius HS) and sophomore Ben Scott (Lancashire, United Kingdom / St. Theodore's HS) joined Jenkins by also turning in 73's, making the Tigers and UCLA the only schools to have three players shoot that low in the same round this weekend.
"Today was a lot of the same as yesterday; the guys that have the experience did well and played confidently," Head Coach Tim Robyn said. "David Jenkins put in a solid round. For him to get in the top 10 against this field is a great accomplishment, and is setting up his season well. Mike Radek was just two strokes behind him, and Ben Scott was just six strokes back."
Freshman John Kelly (St. Louis, Mo. / Christian Brothers College HS) carded a final-round 83 to finished in a tie for 70th place, and sophomore Chris Mabry (Leawood, Kan. / Bishop Miege HS) shot a 79, his best round of the weekend, to finish in 73rd.
Commenting on his players' performance at Inverness, which has hosted the Open four times (1979, 1957, 1931, 1920), Robyn said, "We had three players shoot 73 on a U.S. Open course. That's just great play. We just need to get Chris and John going, and we'll be off to the races."
The Tigers return to action in nine days at the Jim Colbert Intercollegiate in Manhattan, Kan. Play begins on Monday, Sept. 29, with 36 holes of play before concluding on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
MIZZOU MEN'S GOLF at Inverness Intercollegiate - Toledo, Ohio Inverness Club - 7,255 yards / par 71-213
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS (top five plus MU) - 1. UCLA (294-300-292-886); 2. Kansas State (299-303-294-896); 3. Illinois (301-296-301-898); 4. Oklahoma (299-307-298-904); 5. Augusta State (309-300-296-905); 12. MIZZOU (304-319-298-921).
FINAL INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS (top five plus MU finishes) - 1. John Merrick, UCLA (71-74-71-216); 2. Brad Heaven, Toledo (74-76-67-217); 3. Martin Flories, Oklahoma (73-75-72-220); 4. (tie), Aaron Watkins, Kansas State (76-77-69-222), Dillon Dougherty, Northwestern (76-72-74-222), Joe Affrunti, Illinois (74-73-75-222) and Justin Smith, Minnesota (71-74-77-222); 10 (tie). David Jenkins, MU (71-80-73-224); 22 (tie). Michael Radek, MU (75-78-73-226); 38 (tie). Ben Scott, MU (81-76-73-230); 70 (tie). John Kelly, MU (77-85-83-245); 73. Chris Mabry, MU (83-89-79-251).