Oct. 7, 2003
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Despite shooting a pedestrian 1-over-par 285 in the final round, the Kansas State men's golf team broke or tied every tournament record en route to a 16-stroke win over UT-San Antonio on Tuesday at the Nestl? Purina Classic, held at the Missouri Bluffs Golf Club.
The Wildcats finished at 22-under 830, which shatters by six strokes the tournament record set by Illinois last year. In addition, KSU junior Matt VanCleave equaled the collegiate course record with a final-round 65, which propelled him to medallist honors with an individual tournament-record score of 11-under 202.
Missouri shot a Tuesday-low 277 as a team to climb into third place at the finish. Senior Michael Radek missed out on the individual title by four strokes, yet his final-round 71 still gave him second place at 7-under 206. It's the second straight year that Radek has finished as the Nestl? Purina Classic runner-up.
Tiger senior David Jenkins followed his second-round 67 with a 3-under 68 on Tuesday, putting him at 3-under 210 and a tie for eighth place. He has finished in the top 10 in all three of Mizzou's tournaments this fall.
"Mike Radek likes this course, but he's just a better player this year," Missouri Head Coach Tim Robyn said. "He's doing all of the little things you need to play well. It was great to shoot the low round of the day and come out of the tournament on a positive note. We started out poorly, but David, Michael and Chris Mabry all showed a lot of determination when we needed it. We beat a very good Southeastern Louisiana team, and we almost beat a very good UT-San Antonio team."
Freshman Beau Crawford, who competed as a non-scoring individual this week - was the Tigers' next-highest finisher in 14th place after a final-round 74 dropped him to even-par for the tournament. Fellow freshman John Kelly and sophomore Chris Mabry also earned first-page leaderboard status by tying for 24th place at 4-over 217.
Mizzou's next in action at Robyn's alma mater, Stanford, when the Tigers compete in The Nelson Oct. 24-26.
NOTES: The collegiate course record of 65 has now been achieved six times; although Kansas State is the second school to have two different players shoot that low, they are the first to have them occur in the same year ... Southeastern Louisiana's Mervyn Owens went out in 30 during Tuesday's final round on his way to a 67 ... VanCleave's round of 65 started with a 34 on the front before closing with a 31.